It's been nearly a century and a half since native cougars prowled Illinois, but for the second time in five years authorities were forced this week to shoot a big cat that had apparently wandered into the state and was deemed dangerous.
Along with a growing number of cougar sightings in Illinois in recent years, the appearance of the 100-pound cat on a Whiteside County farm Wednesday suggests the state might need new strategies for dealing with the wild predators, state officials and wildlife experts said Friday.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources defended a decision by one of its officers to kill the cougar found on a farm near Morrison, about 130 miles west of Chicago. "Public safety is what we'll make the decision on every time," department spokesman Chris McCloud said.
The cougar was shot after a farmer called authorities to say he had seen a large cat running from a cornfield toward his house and outbuildings, the DNR said.
The farmer's wife said she thought she'd seen the cougar near a corncrib, and when a conservation officer crawled under the corncrib to check, he was face to face with the 100-pound, 6-foot-long cougar, said conservation police Capt. Robert Frazier.
"He was pretty nervous, but it was pretty brave," Frazier said.
A responding officer is responsible for determining how to deal with wildlife, McCloud said. In this case, Frazier said, the farmer and his wife, worried about their pets and horses,asked that the 2-year-old male cougar be killed.
After the conservation officer consulted with law enforcement and wildlife personnel, he decided the animal was a threat to public safety because of its proximity to the farmer's home. The officer shot the animal with a state-issued rifle, the department said.
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