Missouri Has Not Had a Mountain Lion Sighting for a Year

Where have all the big cats gone? That's a valid question as Missouri has now officially gone a full calendar year without one single mountain lion sighting and I'm suspicious.

To give credit where credit is due, the Missouri Department of Conservation has done a swell job over the years of documenting when someone in the state has a valid mountain lion sighting. Their map is populated with sightings in every single area of the state.

Here is the last official mountain lion sighting from February 13, 2024. Yes, exactly one year ago as of this wriitng.

Where have all the Missouri mountain lions gone?

The Missouri Department of Conservation says that mountain lions are not native to the state. The sightings, they say, are from lone big cats that are merely traveling through Missouri. Many have debated whether this is indeed fact. What is odd is that we know for a fact that a Missouri hunter killed a mountain lion just a couple months ago. Was that big cat just a ghost?

The state of Missouri does a good job of validating mountain lion sightings before they categorize them as confirmed. They'll examine trail cam videos and photos and tracks which is needed as there are many false cougar sightings. I just find it hard to believe that we've gone an entire year without any mountain lion sightings in Missouri. The cynic in me would say that maybe the state is underreporting the mountain lions to keep people from panicking over a real mountain lion population, but it's likely not that. Maybe no one is updating the website now? It's a valid question.