Reported mountain lion is actually a bobcat

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KANSAS CITY Mo -- Biologists for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) have determined that photos of a reported mountain lion taken in the Mosby area of Clay County area are actually of a bobcat.

A citizen took the photos late last week near U.S. 69 and she reported them to Conservation officials. A Kansas-City-area television station has broadcast reports about the incident.

Earlier today (Feb. 14), MDC Wildlife Damage Biologist Todd Meese, who is a member of the Department’s Mountain Lion Response Team, and Conservation Agent Scott Stephens went to the site where the photographs were taken. They placed life-size cutouts of a bobcat and a mountain lion where the animal had stood and took photos from the highway where the citizen had photographed the cat. The size of the cat in the new photo matched the bobcat cutout. Fur coloration and a bobbed tail visible in the original photographs also indicate it was a bobcat. Meese also inspected tracks at the scene.

“They were definitely bobcat-sized tracks,” Meese said.

MDC Furbearer BiologistJeff Berringer, who also chairs the Mountain Lion Response Team, also looked at the digital photographs of the cat and said he was confident it was a bobcat.

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