New Map Shows Mountain Lions Migrating East in Missouri

Mountain lion sightings in Missouri remain rare, but a new map shows that may change soon as the big cats are being tracked and they're migrating eastward with Missouri one of the corridors for that movement.

I saw this shared just a few days ago on the Missouri sub-Reddit. It's a somewhat dated map which infers that Missouri is in the path of the eastward migration of mountain lions.

Mountain Lions in Missouri
byu/como365 inmissouri

They are not alone in their beliefs. Tufts University recently created a highly-detailed map showing the areas where mountain lions can create a habitat and their information does show these apex predators are migrating eastward. The yellow represents the range of these big cats.

This map agrees with the recent sightings in Missouri where the southeastern quadrant of the state has had the most mountain lion encounters.

The Missouri Department of Conservation keeps a close watch on where mountain lions are sighted in Missouri. This map reveals all parts of the state have reported lone mountain lion reports.

It's interesting that the state of Missouri has not officially confirmed a mountain lion sighting since February of 2024. If the new data showing mountain lions migrating eastward is accurate, we can expect many more big cat sightings in the future. It's only a matter of when.