by Clark Schmitz
During the 2017 Iowa deer season a mountain lion was killed in western IA. near Akron. 17 year old Jacob Altena of Rock Rapids, IA. was deer hunting during the gun season with family members along the Big Sioux River when the startling event happened. He was headed back to the truck when he heard rustling in the brush nearby and decided to check it out. He walked to within 15’ of a female mountain lion. Altena felt the lion was going to come after him and immediately pulled up his 20 gauge shot gun (loaded with slugs) and shot the lion, killing it. In Iowa mountain lions are not protected and harvesting the lion was of course perfectly legal.
Although certainly not common in Iowa, this was the 6th mountain lion killed in Iowa in recent history and only the second female killed in more than 100 years. Locally a mountain lion was killed by the DNR in Ida County in June of 2017 (the first female lion killed), near Rock Valley IA. in 2013, near Ireton, IA. in 2003, and in South Sioux City, NE. and Yankton, SD in 2004. Local residence do report mountain lion sighting from time to time although it seems many reports cannot be confirmed. Since 1995 the Iowa DNR has confirmed 21 mountain lion sightings. In 2017 the Iowa DNR has only had three confirmed mountain lion sightings.
The female lion shot near Akron in Dec of 2017 had a Nebraska DNR GPS collar and ear tags. I contacted Nebraska DNR for any information they could provide. They could only share that the tagged lion was part of a four year study and the results would be published and made available after the study was complete. I was referred to their web site which did have information about the mountain lions in Nebraska and the status of those lions.
Doug Chafa, IA. DNR wildlife biologist examined the lion and determined that it was a 2 to 4 year old female, weighted 82.7 pounds and measured 6 feet long from the tip of its nose to the end of the tail. He also determined that the lion had not had a litter yet and what the lion had been eating recently could not be determined as the stomach was empty.
Chafa also shared information regarding normal mountain lion behavior and that Mountain lions don’t generally attack people. When a mountain lion encounters a human they generally leave you alone when they smell that you’re a human. If ever faced with a mountain lion making yourself look as big as possible and making lots of noise is a good practice. With tons of small game in the area a mountain lion is not likely to snack on pets or anything like that.
Sources: akron and Sheldon papers
