Rare Mountain Lion Kittens Spotted on Trail Cameras Suggest the Big Cats May Be Re-establishing a Population in Oklahoma
Two separate adult mountain lions were recorded with cubs in different parts of the state last year, offering the first evidence confirmed by state biologists that the cats could be breeding there
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Mountain lions were once a common sight in Oklahoma. But as settlers began arriving during the 19th century, they shot and killed many of the big cats. They also wiped out the predators’ main food source by hunting nearly all the state’s deer.
By the early 1900s, mountain lions had largely disappeared from Oklahoma. Now, however, new evidence suggests the prowling felines may be making a comeback.
Two mountain lions with kittens have been spotted in different parts of the state, according to a statement from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Wildlife biologists confirmed the sightings after reviewing photos of the young creatures provided by private landowners.
The first family was recorded in October by a trail camera installed in Osage County, located in the north-central part of the state near Tulsa. The photo shows an adult mountain lion and two kittens in tall, dry grass near a stacked stone structure and a row of trees.
Just a few months later, in December, another trail camera photographed an adult mountain lion with three smaller kittens. Though the image was captured at night, the telltale spots on the kittens’ backs are clearly visible. This sighting was in Cimarron County, located at the far western tip of Oklahoma’s panhandle, sandwiched between Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
The two counties where the kittens were documented are nearly 400 miles apart. Female mountain lions tend to establish home ranges that span up to 75 square miles, while males may prowl much larger areas of up to 275 square miles, per the statement.
The closest known mountain lion populations to the state are in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Nebraska.
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Wildlife biologists are heartened by the recent photos. The fact that two female mountain lions have chosen to call Oklahoma home, at least part-time, is “a direct reflection of a healthy ecosystem,” says Jerrod Davis, a biologist with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, in a statement.
“It’s our first piece of evidence that mountain lions may be breeding in Oklahoma, a key indicator the population is becoming established,” he adds.
This is not the first time mountain lions have been seen in Oklahoma in recent years. The department has confirmed 85 sightings since 2002, based on tracks, photos and carcasses. However, some of those instances could represent the same individual, the department notes. In addition, they suspect those earlier mountain lions were just passing through, until the two that were sighted with cubs.
The confirmed sightings are a very small subset of the total that get called in. “As compelling as a reported sighting may be, we must gather hard evidence,” according to the state. “Although hundreds of recorded sightings have been reported each year, a small percentage have yielded enough physical evidence to clearly confirm the presence of a mountain lion.”
Many purported sightings of mountain lions in Oklahoma turn out to be other animals, including bobcats, house cats, dogs, coyotes, foxes, deer and rabbits. In other cases, the state’s biologists simply don’t have enough proof to identify the animal as a mountain lion.
But the recent kitten snapshots held up to scrutiny, and they are “exciting and interesting,” says Davis in the statement. However, the state still needs to conduct more research to better understand the species, he adds.
A good first step, he says, would be to determine the total number of mountain lions living in Oklahoma and get a sense of their geographic distribution. As the nonprofit Mountain Lion Foundation notes, Oklahoma “can’t make any definitive comments about the potential population as they haven’t yet conducted research on the matter.” Davis suggests deploying more cameras and undertaking further research based on what they find.
Oklahoma has listed mountain lions as a “game species with a closed season” since 1957, meaning it’s illegal to hunt them. However, the state does allow individuals to kill mountain lions year-round if the big cats are “committing or about to commit depredation on any domesticated animal or when deemed an immediate safety hazard.”
Anyone who kills a mountain lion must immediately call a game warden. And, within 24 hours, the animal’s carcass—including its hide—must be provided to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for biological data collection.
Mountain lions (Puma concolor), also known as cougars or pumas, once roamed throughout North America. But European settlers and trappers killed off most of the big cats living in the eastern two-thirds of the continent.
“Mountain lions were functionally extinct in the Midwest by 1860, the mid-Atlantic states by 1882, in the south coastal states by 1886, in central Appalachia by 1900 and in New England by 1906,” according to the Mountain Lion Foundation.
Any surviving cats populated the West beyond the Rocky Mountains, where they’re still commonly found today.
Starting in the 1960s, many states began regulating the hunting of mountain lions. Decades later, these conservation efforts appear to be giving the animals a boost across their historic range. Earlier this year, for instance, Michigan biologists confirmed the first mountain lion kittens in the state in more than 100 years.
“Since about 1990, states east of the Rockies—from North Dakota to Michigan, down to eastern Texas and Louisiana—have been recording more cougars than at any time in more than a century,” wrote Michelle Larue for American Scientist in 2018.
