They also insisted that they don't have a "shoot-on-sight" policy for mountain lions, which have been reclaiming lost territory in recent years and expanding their range from their stronghold in the western United States. "It will be a case-by-case situation," said Mark Marraccini, spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Wildlife Resources. "The circumstances will speak for themselves."
Wildlife biologists and veterinarian Iga Stasiak on Tuesday conducted a necropsy on the mountain lion, which was shot Monday in Bourbon County after state wildlife officers deemed it a risk. Genetic material from the big cat will be sent out of state to a wildlife lab to see whether the animals DNA matches any wild populations. "They can determine the origin," said Marraccini, adding the investigation will take weeks to get answers.
Wednesday, however, Marraccini was downplaying the possibility that the animal was wild. He said it appeared to be too healthy "to have walked here from Nebraska." But he also noted that Kentucky has a big deer population and a lot of potential suitable habitat.
Kentucky's investigation will include looking into where the animal might have lived in captivity, Marraccini said, declining to elaborate. If it turns out to be a wild cat, he said it would prompt a discussion within the agency about the potential management of such a top-line predator in the state.
While biologists would be excited about the potential, he said Kentucky residents would likely be very wary, noting that state residents were opposed to reintroduction of the red wolf, another predator, to the state in the 1980s.
Some Kentucky residents have had a hard time adjusting to the return of black bears, Marraccini said. It means they have to change old patterns, such as not leaving dog food on the porch. For now, he said, there is no policy on how field officers are to handle any mountain lion sightings, other than to give them the authority to do what is necessary for public safety. In this case, he said the animal was in a populated rural area within two miles of Paris, and the officer feared the cat could slip away into the night if it were not killed.
Wildlife advocates, however, have argued that mountain lions can be an important part of any ecosystem and that attacks on humans are very rare. In some states, they are also hunted.
The shooting was reminiscent of a similar action taken by Illinois wildlife officials in November 2013. That state had wiped out its mountain lion population by 1970, but when one showed up on a farm last year, game wardens quickly dispatched the animal as a threat. "When the (officer) arrived at the farm, he made contact with the farm owner's wife, who was in the house, and checked a horse barn and lot where the landowner's horses were located," Illinois Department of Natural Resources reported at the time. "The cougar was discovered in a concrete tunnel beneath a corn crib."
Mountain lions are the largest cats found in North America and can measure up to eight feet from nose to tail and weigh up to 180 pounds. Also known as cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts, the cats are considered top-line predators other species rarely feed on them.
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