Southern Missouri man captures a live mountain lion

CENTERVILLE, Mo. -- Wayne Henson might have raised the bar for public servants in Missouri this week. The Reynolds County commissioner trapped a 122-pound mountain lion.

Henson, 61, who describes himself as a hobby trapper, uses an old deer hide to catch bobcats. He skins those animals and sells their pelts to a fur company. When he checked a trap in the Mark Twain National Forest on Wednesday afternoon, he found a creature far bigger than a bobcat.

"It was a big old kitty," said Henson. "And it was extremely aggressive, viciously wild and screaming at me."

State officials confirmed the capture on Thursday.

Jim Low, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation and a 21-year veteran of the department, said it was the first time he had ever heard of a cougar captured alive in Missouri.

After sedating the animal, weighing it and taking a DNA sample, conservation agents released the mountain lion Thursday afternoon in the Current River Conservation Area, about 130 miles south of St. Louis. A conservation agent estimated the cat's age at 2 years and found the animal to be in excellent physical condition, Low said.

Henson wasn't happy about the animal being released in the conservation area, which is near the border of Reynolds and Shannon counties, saying the animal could pose a risk to hikers on the Ozark Trail and children playing in the forest.

Low said conservation agents followed department procedure for dealing with protected species that don't pose an immediate danger to humans or livestock.

"This was an animal that wasn't hurting anyone, and there's no reason to think that it will be a threat to anyone," Low said.

On Wednesday, Henson immediately recognized the trapped animal as a mountain lion, but he wasn't quite sure what he should do with it. He said he knew it was illegal to shoot it, but releasing it himself wasn't an option either. "There was no way for me to get it out (of the trap) except opening the door, and you'd have to be pretty stupid to do that," he said.

Instead, Henson called conservation agents. While waiting for them to arrive, he put the trap on the back of his pickup and hauled the beast into Centerville, the county seat. While Henson worked in the courthouse, a crowd gathered to gawk at the commissioner's new cat.

"They came from all across the county," Henson said.

Although conservation officials say there is no evidence of a breeding cougar population in Missouri, mountain lion sightings have become increasingly common. Experts believe growing populations of cougars in western states are forcing young males -- or "toms" -- to wander farther east after they are expelled from established habitats by dominant males.

Almost one year ago, an automated wildlife camera snapped a picture of a mountain lion in Chesterfield.

Not counting this week's capture, Low said 26 confirmed cougar sightings have been reported in the state, with 16 of those coming in the last 14 months.

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