The mountain lion killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in June originally was from South Dakota, and traveled 1,100 to 1,500 miles to Connecticut over about 18 months, state environmental officials said Tuesday.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection biologists, working with their counterparts in other states, say they made their determination the male mountain lion’s origin using genetic testing of tissue samples taken from the animal as well as some of its scat.

The animal, which was killed June 11 on the parkway in Milford, was younger than 6 years old and is believed to be the same animal a Greenwich resident reported seeing earlier in June.

“This is really something that is quite amazing,” said Dan Esty, DEEP’s commissioner. As a result of the testing, Esty said DEEP officials are still convinced there is no indigenous mountain lion population in Connecticut.

At the time the mountain lion was killed, DEEP officials theorized that the animal had been a pet that escaped from captivity. Esty said Connecticut’s indigenous mountain lion population died out about 150 years ago.

Officials in Minnesota first spotted the animal in December 2009, and their counterparts in Wisconsin later named it “The St. Croix Cougar” after it was spotted in Wisconsin’s St. Croix County.

Although DEEP officials have no firm evidence about how the mountain lion got to Connecticut from the upper Midwest, they theorize it may have walked across the upper peninsula of Michigan and through southern Ontario in Canada before crossing back into the United States.

The distance walked by the mountain lion is more than twice that of any recorded travel by the species, said DEEP biologist Paul Rego. The previous record is about 600 miles, Rego said.

Once in Connecticut, the mountain lion likely would have had to have crossed the Housatonic River in order to make it from Greenwich. Rego said that while mountain lions don’t normally swim, there was a recent incident in Utah in which a female of the species was seen swimming across a river.

“Rivers do present a bit of a challenge for them,” he said. “Certainly not insurmountable, though.” Continued...

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Scientists and naturalists will continue to study this case for years to come, Rego said. But because of the distance the mountain lion traveled, he said the case “is likely to be viewed as an anomaly” rather than evidence of a change in behavior among mountain lions.

Some estimates place the nation’s mountain lion population at about 100,000, with most in the West.

Esty said the fact that a mountain lion could live in Connecticut even for a short time “is evidence that we are having some success in restoring wildlife habitats.”

“This guy (the mountain lion) had a really adventurous spirit,” Esty said.

Mtn Lion Presentation

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The mountain lion killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in June originally was from South Dakota, and traveled 1,100 to 1,500 miles to Connecticut over about 18 months, state environmental officials said Tuesday.

State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection biologists, working with their counterparts in other states, say they made their determination the male mountain lion’s origin using genetic testing of tissue samples taken from the animal as well as some of its scat.

The animal, which was killed June 11 on the parkway in Milford, was younger than 6 years old and is believed to be the same animal a Greenwich resident reported seeing earlier in June.

“This is really something that is quite amazing,” said Dan Esty, DEEP’s commissioner. As a result of the testing, Esty said DEEP officials are still convinced there is no indigenous mountain lion population in Connecticut.

At the time the mountain lion was killed, DEEP officials theorized that the animal had been a pet that escaped from captivity. Esty said Connecticut’s indigenous mountain lion population died out about 150 years ago.

Officials in Minnesota first spotted the animal in December 2009, and their counterparts in Wisconsin later named it “The St. Croix Cougar” after it was spotted in Wisconsin’s St. Croix County.

Although DEEP officials have no firm evidence about how the mountain lion got to Connecticut from the upper Midwest, they theorize it may have walked across the upper peninsula of Michigan and through southern Ontario in Canada before crossing back into the United States.

The distance walked by the mountain lion is more than twice that of any recorded travel by the species, said DEEP biologist Paul Rego. The previous record is about 600 miles, Rego said.

Once in Connecticut, the mountain lion likely would have had to have crossed the Housatonic River in order to make it from Greenwich. Rego said that while mountain lions don’t normally swim, there was a recent incident in Utah in which a female of the species was seen swimming across a river.

“Rivers do present a bit of a challenge for them,” he said. “Certainly not insurmountable, though.”

Scientists and naturalists will continue to study this case for years to come, Rego said. But because of the distance the mountain lion traveled, he said the case “is likely to be viewed as an anomaly” rather than evidence of a change in behavior among mountain lions.

Some estimates place the nation’s mountain lion population at about 100,000, with most in the West.

Esty said the fact that a mountain lion could live in Connecticut even for a short time “is evidence that we are having some success in restoring wildlife habitats.”

“This guy (the mountain lion) had a really adventurous spirit,” Esty said.

Mtn Lion Presentation

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