Another Angle On The Big Pusscat Story.

[Feathers and Fins]

All this talk makes me think of te Arguements I hear about another creature BIGFOOT! Now im not saying BIGFOOT is real or not but just find the arguements regarding the cats seem to be the same ones about BIGFOOT... Kinda interesting how people dont want to beleive it and the goverments want to take a slow approach to them unless a proven population is present...

[jdmidwest]

I never really meant it as a conspiracy theory, because they are obviously here. Was this just a bad year on the old home range and a group of males decide to head to Missouri and see if they could scare up a little tail? There must be a breeder in the woods around here somewhere. Do they travel to MO based on the instinct that cats used to live here, so maybe they can find a female. Can't they smell a female in heat? Why walk for days without a whiff? I think they are here from some other reason.

Not long ago, an exotic breeder let several loose in Ark., I think most were never found. Did anyone entertain the fact that someone may have dumped some here? Where do you think the feral hogs came from? MDC never stocked them and they did not wander in here, they were let loose illegally when game ranches went under. There are alot of exotic animals raised every year in several states. Not all track them like Missouri does.

As far as dealing with it. 30 years ago or more there were a few sightings of black bears, then one every now and then till a few years ago. Then all of the sudden, lots of sightings, a few killed. But their stance on the issue was that it was just young males traveling up from Ark. Don't worry, no alarms. Last year, MDC had a program to trap/study them and documented a resident population. But when was the last time you heard of anyone killing a bear lately? Maybe MDC needs to realize that maybe the cats are here to stay and study them which in the long run may actually protect them.

[Chief Grey Bear]

All this talk makes me think of te Arguements I hear about another creature BIGFOOT! Now im not saying BIGFOOT is real or not but just find the arguements regarding the cats seem to be the same ones about BIGFOOT... Kinda interesting how people dont want to beleive it and the goverments want to take a slow approach to them unless a proven population is present...

Other than the cat's in Missouri have been confirmed. I really don't see how this is even close to being relevant. And if I have read correctly, the government, MDC in the case, has never denied the presence of them.

[Tim Smith]

Other than the cat's in Missouri have been confirmed. I really don't see how this is even close to being relevant. And if I have read correctly, the government, MDC in the case, has never denied the presence of them.

Those are in Fouke, Arkansas anyway, not Missouri. Maybe someone trapped it and moved it there?

[junkman]

If I was misinformed then NPR was misinformed. for I don't go to coffie shops let alone listen to the mans gossip. I don't even go to the barber shop for that fact. but I do know I heard it on NPR. Also if you look at the cat killed in Connecticut it was scanned for a implanted tracking device so it looks as if they do implant them. I seen the tracks of a black on 25 years ago around here. would not have believed it but it was my brother in law that seen it. And since I am a true Missourian, I had to see it to believe it. So I asked him to show me where he had seen it, was which he did. biggest cat track I ever saw.

[Feathers and Fins]

Chief, I was just Typing outload lol.

I dont think so Tim.

JD, Invasives get places all kinds of ways doesnt always have to be by human release... I did alot of work with them in FL, One of my favorite stories {true} was an Eastern Diamond Back Rattler found in Alaska... How did it get there? Crawled into a crate and flew... Another was of another EDB found in Cali, How did it get there? Road the train! How did the many invasives get loose in FL, Some by Hurricane Andrew taking out several Importers and also by humans releasing them.. But some simply floated on over on logs.

Who knows whats out there we brought here without even knowing it?

I think the kitties are just striking out looking for some female kitty loven and getting away from the big bad kitty that beats them up for being in his area.

[Outside Bend]

I think the kitties are just striking out looking for some female kitty loven and getting away from the big bad kitty that beats them up for being in his area.

Bingo- it's not all about chasing tail. Self-preservation plays a big role, too.

A juvenile lion isn't going to be able to breed if it's constantly competing with bigger, stronger, older males for food and territory. They'll strike out for areas with lower lion densities- regardless of whether there are females in those areas or not.

Live to breed another day.

[Justin Spencer]

I think aliens are planting them here so they can watch us waste a bunch of time argueing about it. How the heck do you spell arguing?

[Feathers and Fins]

I think aliens are planting them here so they can watch us waste a bunch of time argueing about it. How the heck do you spell arguing?

OPINION DIFFERANCE... Oh wait you asked how to spell it not what it is... ar·gu·ing

[Al Agnew]

I never really meant it as a conspiracy theory, because they are obviously here. Was this just a bad year on the old home range and a group of males decide to head to Missouri and see if they could scare up a little tail? There must be a breeder in the woods around here somewhere. Do they travel to MO based on the instinct that cats used to live here, so maybe they can find a female. Can't they smell a female in heat? Why walk for days without a whiff? I think they are here from some other reason.

Not long ago, an exotic breeder let several loose in Ark., I think most were never found. Did anyone entertain the fact that someone may have dumped some here? Where do you think the feral hogs came from? MDC never stocked them and they did not wander in here, they were let loose illegally when game ranches went under. There are alot of exotic animals raised every year in several states. Not all track them like Missouri does.

As far as dealing with it. 30 years ago or more there were a few sightings of black bears, then one every now and then till a few years ago. Then all of the sudden, lots of sightings, a few killed. But their stance on the issue was that it was just young males traveling up from Ark. Don't worry, no alarms. Last year, MDC had a program to trap/study them and documented a resident population. But when was the last time you heard of anyone killing a bear lately? Maybe MDC needs to realize that maybe the cats are here to stay and study them which in the long run may actually protect them.

Thought I explained how they might have gotten here. Young males HAVE to leave the territory of older males once they get big enough to be competition to the established male. So they leave. They don't like open country, which most of South Dakota is. The good lion country is already populated with established males. So they use travel corridors. As long as they don't find what they are looking for, they keep going, they don't stop and they don't go back the way they came. The Missouri River valley is a travel corridor, especially the eastern side once you get into Iowa, because there are rough, wooded hills all along the valley side. But in back of the hills is more open agricultural land. So they keep going, because they aren't finding females. So some of them keep on until they reach Missouri...unless they turn off up some river valley coming into the Missouri, in which case Iowa or even Minnesota gets a few. But there was a long time when there just weren't enough deer in that travel corridor to keep them fed while they were moving. Now there is. So more of them make it to Missouri, maybe.

I don't know how much of a DNA profile the biologists have, but apparently it's enough to tell them that many of these cats are coming from South Dakota. As I understand it, captive animal breeders aren't getting their cats from South Dakota. In fact, I think I read somewhere that a lot of captive cougars actually have South American genetics. Apparently they can tell if there's a good chance the cat came from an exotic animal breeder. But like I also said, that's certainly a plausible way for a female to end up here. A lot more plausible than a wild female coming from South Dakota or elsewhere.

Junkman, I'd guess that either NPR was misinformed, the reporter was confused, or possibly the New England cat's genetics were similar to genetics of some cat that Missouri DNA checked. Or also possibly the reporter had heard of the cats that have been reported in MO, looked at a U.S. map, and decided that Missouri was the closest place with recent recorded sightings. At any rate, since MDC is officially on record that they have no proof of a breeding population, I would doubt that an NPR reporter would know something other than the official MDC position.