From a recent story in The Galesburg Register-Mail:
When Perry McFarland looked out his window around 7:30 yesterday morning, a glimpse of something caught his eye. In the grassy knoll behind his fence, about 650 feet from his sunroom window, a large animal pounced like a cat. He grabbed his binoculars for a closer look and determined the animal must be a cougar. His wife ran to the window. She spotted another one. McFarland called the Knox County Sheriff’s department, which transferred him to animal control.
Police Department Conservation Officer Darin Pitchford said he received the call from McFarland, who lives about six miles north of Galeburg just off of U.S. 150, but could not confirm that the animals were cougars.
“Some of the things don’t add up,” he said. McFarland reported that he saw two cougars, but Pitchford said traditionally cougars are solitary animals that do not live in pairs even during mating season.
He said the department typically doesn’t respond to cougar sightings, unless they receive a picture, which they’ll pass on to a biologist. He said there were some cougar sightings in 1999 around Lake Bracken, but none of those were able to be confirmed.
McFarland said he also called his neighbors Robin and Stephen Podwojski who live closer to where the cougars were. Robin Podwojski said she and her 13-year-old son, who was home sick from school, spotted the cougars as well. Intrigued, they decided to drive over to see them up close. Podwojski drove about 50 yards from the cougars before they decided to turn back. She said the animals were about the size of a large dog, tan in color and had a long tail.
Both she and the McFarlands searched on the Internet for pictures of cougars to make sure it wasn’t a bobcat or another animal.
“I have no doubt what it was,” Podwojski said. “It was definitely a cougar.”
Sara Mackey, a naturalist for the Prairie Wildlife State Park, said that it’s possible cougars are moving back to Illinois, after being reportedly leaving the area during the late 1800s.
“We definitely have a food supply for them here with all the white-tailed deer,” she said.
She said cougars are not a threat to humans and that there is no cause for concern.
Cougars “don’t have many predators out there except for humans so they have a natural fear of humans,” she said. “For the most part cougars stay away from humans.”
Only if someone is face to face with a cougar would they be in danger, she said. Otherwise, assuming there is large enough of a food source — and there is in Illinois, with all the deer — that people should have no reason to fear for their own safety or even their pets’.
Mackey added that cougars typically weigh between 100 to 200 lbs. She said she has not heard of any recent reported cougar sighting. There was one sighting earlier this year, but analysis of the animal’s tracks showed that it was a large dog, not a cougar.
A report from Prairie State Outdoors said that there were two sightings of large, cat-like animals in July in Henry County, directly above Knox County. The Department of Natural Resources and the Henry County Police Department were unable to verify the report.
Illinois’ last verified wild cougar was shot in Roscoe Village, a north-side Chicago neighborhood. The 122-pound male cougar traveled an estimated 950 miles from South Dakota. Cougars were found dead in 2004 in Mercer County and in Randolph County in 2000. Before that, the last cougar sighting recorded in Illinois was in Alexander County in 1862.
A new photo essay about small-town America,
I am looking into a nationwide tour to benefit cancer research and St. Judes and need empty buildings to promote my events. I put on very exciting, safe, and fun mixed martial arts cage fights. If the wal-mart building in Galesburg could accomodate this it would be one incredible show!!!!