Fort Smith TV station tonight had a guy that had some good night pics of a large mountain lion with one of those motion cams in the area north of Van Buren, AR in the Boston Mountains. I've always said they had them in the area but nobody pays any mind to me.
A motion sensitive camera captured this photo of what appears to be a mountain lion in an area just north of Van Buren.
VIDEO: Mountain lion could be prowling woods near Van Buren
October 25, 2004 at 10:00 PM
VAN BUREN - The father of a Channel 5 employee put out a motion-sensitive camera to capture photos of wildlife near his home just north of Van Buren. When the family developed the film, they found a picture of what they think is a mountain lion.
"We expected to see a few deer, a few dogs and some squirrels," said Stacy Gustafson. "But we didn't expect a big cat."
The question is, what kind of big cat is the animal that's seen in the picture taken near Van Buren.
"We do not believe we have a breeding population of wild mountain lions in the state," said Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Regional Wildlife Supervisor Randall Bullington. "In relation to the size of the rock and the leaves and the trees in the background, it just doesn't appear to be that big of an animal. It's more probably the size of a bobcat."
But retired game warden Bryce Parker-- who owns both a mountain lion and a bobcat-- disagrees.
"A bobcat only weighs 35 pounds, and this one [in the picture] looks like it weighs at lease 75 to 80 pounds," Parker said. "As long and lanky as it is, and it looks like a long tail, it really looks like a mountain lion."
While the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says there are no wild mountain lions in the state, since 1997 there have been at lease eight cases of pet mountain lions escaping or being intentionally released. All eight of those mountain lions were either shot or recaptured.
"Well I think they should acknowledge the fact that this might not be a pet that has just gotten loose from the owner or someone has released it," Stacy said. "They need to know that there might actually be a danger."
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission estimates that there are about 100 to 150 pet mountain lions in the state. As for wild mountain lions here, Bullington says there really is no concern
ww.5newsonline.com
