Fact Check

Mountain Lion

Does a photograph show a large mountain lion killed by a deer hunter in Kansas?

Published Feb. 4, 2004

Claim:

Claim:   Photograph shows a large mountain lion killed by a deer hunter in Kansas, Iowa, or Wisconsin.


REAL PHOTOGRAPHS; INACCURATE DESCRIPTION


Examples:


[Collected via e-mail, December 2008]

Pelican Lake WI. About 26 miles north of Antigo WI

Here is a photo of a cougar killed in Pelican Lake, WI.

The guy who shot it is 6 foot tall and weighs about 220 lbs.
He was in a deer stand near Consolidated Rd. and County Hwy. B.
He saw it pass him upwind and then down wind.
When the cat passed him again he knew that it was hunting him, so - boom.
 


[Collected via e-mail, January 2005]

Mountain lion was shot near Leon, KS.

This guy is a friend of one of the Maint. guys at Boeing. He was going deer hunting when he heard his neighbors cows making noise. He discovered this cat attacking some calves.

He shot and reportedly the cat jumped eight feet into the air, ran about 100 yards and died. The man in the picture is over 6 feet tall and the cat weighed over 200 pounds.
 


[Collected via e-mail, February 2004]

Now this is an Iowa "cow-corn fed" mountain lion!

Looks like Iowa deer hunting just got a little more exciting.

This mountain lion was shot north of Villisca, Iowa. Close to Morton Mills. The man pictured was going deer hunting when he heard his neighbors cows making noise. He discovered this cat attacking some calves.

He shot and reportedly the cat jumped eight feet into the air, ran about 100 yards and died. The man in the picture is over 6 feet tall and the cat weighed over 200 pounds.

Tenville and Morton Mills are tiny little towns in rural Iowa. If you blink you'll miss them while driving by the towns. Tenville is located between Morton Mills and Villisca.





Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge


 

Origins:   The mountain lion pictured above is one travelin' cat, having (according to various

e-mail forwards) been spotted and killed as far northwest as Montana, as far south as Alabama, and as far east in Pennsylvania, in addition to
a variety of states in the midwestern U.S.

Multiple variations of this message have been circulated, usually with the same base claim (a deer hunter is alerted by noise and discovers a large mountain lion attacking livestock) but with different settings: the deer hunter is said to have stumbled across the big cat "10 miles North of Harrisburg (Pennsylvania)," "near Stover, Missouri," "north of Villisca, Iowa," "26 miles north of Antigo (Wisconsin)," "near Leon (Kansas)," and in Alabama, Montana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.

According to a news release from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), this picture appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of Fair Chase magazine (a Boone and Crockett Club publication dedicated to hunting and conservation of North American big game) and actually depicts a mountain lion taken near Seattle, Washington:



"The circulated photograph was actually featured in the fall issue of the Boone and Crockett Club's magazine, Fair Chase," says KDWP Information and Education Section Chief Bob Mathews. "The lion had been taken earlier in the year within an hour's drive of Seattle, Washington."

This email hoax first began when it was said to have been taken near Harrisburg, Penn., according to Boone and Crockett's magazine. Since then, the KDWP website feedback email has received dozens of messages claiming it was taken in Alabama, Montana, Texas, and Wyoming, as well as Leon.

"Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here," Mathews adds. "Folks should check dubious email stories out before passing them around."


The Trophy Watch section of the Boone and Crockett Club's web site and a thread posted on the message board of the 24 Hour Campfire web site by Jim Hackewitz, one of the men who participated in the hunt, provided additional information about the mountain lion — it was taken by Roy Hisler of Duval, Washington, in the central Cascades near Bellevue, Washington, on 22 December 2002; it weighed 190 pounds; and Jim Hackewitz, who is pictured holding it, is 5'10" tall:



Well here is an exceptional lion killed using a predator call this afternoon. We actually took him home whole and weighed him at the fish Hatchery scale in town, he was 190 pounds. The Skull is 15-12/16 which makes him tied with 5 others skulls for 6th place over all.

Shot with a 30/06 and 165 grain bullet one time!


Last updated:   28 December 2008

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.