Mountain Lion Kittens Were Finally Photographed in Oklahoma. Skeptics Claim the Cats Have Been Breeding There All Along

Yahoo

2 days ago

Wildlife officials with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation have confirmed two photographs of mountain lion kittens in the state. The trail-cam photos shared by the agency Tuesday were captured in October and December 2024 in two different counties. Officials say the photos are the first concrete evidence they've seen of mountain lions potentially breeding in Oklahoma.
That two-word disclaimer, 'they've seen,' is notable, because mountain lion sightings have risen sharply in Oklahoma over the last few years. This has led many Oklahomans, including state legislators, to believe the cats are making a comeback. The governor even signed a new law in May that lays the groundwork for a future cougar hunting season should ODWC decide to establish one in the future.
ODWC, however, has long maintained that the state does not have a breeding population of mountain lions, and that any big cats spotted in Oklahoma are likely transient animals that wandered in from Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nebraska. State wildlife biologists have said in years past that they simply haven't found enough physical evidence (in the form of scrapes, tracks, scent-marks, and the like) to support the existence of a 'viable local population' of cougars within state lines.
Tuesday's photo release obviously changes that calculus, something social media users have been eager to point out. The comment section in ODWC's June 10 Facebook post includes many assertions that the agency has been 'gaslighting' its residents and 'pushing a lie' about the state's cougar populations. There are also dozens of claims by commenters about the other cougar kittens they've seen with their own eyes, to which the agency has generally and politely responded: Prove it.
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'What's the lie?' ODWC wrote in response to one commenter. 'This is the first time photographic evidence of kittens has been provided to us and reviewed by a biologist. Any previous sightings of kittens was not provided to us with documentation.'
The agency says the photos of the cougar kittens were captured on trail cameras in two very different parts of the state and sent in by private landowners. The first photograph, taken in Osage County in October, shows an adult lion with two half-grown kittens following behind it. The second was taken at night in Cimarron County in December, and it shows an adult lion with three smaller kittens.
Cimarron County is the westernmost county in the Oklahoma panhandle, and it abuts the border of New Mexico, which is home to a healthy population of well over 3,000 mountain lions. Osage County lies nearly 400 miles to the east and just south of Kansas, and it's where the majority of mountain lion sightings confirmed by ODWC in recent years have taken place. Looking broadly at this history, the agency says it's been able to verify 85 cougar sightings since 2002, with a noticeable increase in 2023, when there were around 20 sightings confirmed within the state.
Officials noted in Tuesday's announcement that this increase in cougar sightings has coincided with the growing use of trail cameras in Oklahoma. They said the recent photographs of kittens could lead wildlife biologists to deploy more of those cameras and conduct additional research into local cougar populations. But they also stopped short of calling those photographs irrefutable proof of an established, breeding population of Oklahoma mountain lions.
'While exciting and interesting, these sightings are just one small piece of the puzzle needed to better understand this species,' ODWC furbearer biologist Jerrod Brown said in that announcement. 'It's our first piece of evidence that mountain lions may be breeding in Oklahoma, a key indicator the population is becoming established.'