South Sioux City Cougar

Cougar (mountain lion) perching in a tree in a residential area in South Sioux City.  Picture taken by South Sioux City Police Department and used with permission.

This cougar brought a little excitement to a South Sioux City family on November 23, 2004.  That morning a South Sioux City mother was taking her children to their van when her 4 year old asked her, "Mommy, what's that big yellow thing up there in the tree?" (Claeys, 2004).  Mom kept her cool,  dropped off her kids at school, returned home and found that the cougar was still in the tree when she came back.  She had a bit of a problem convincing authorities that she really had a cougar in a tree in her front yard.  The police sent her to animal control who thought she probably had a raccoon or house cat (Claeys, 2004).  But when they arrived at the scene and saw that it really was a 100 to 120 pound cougar, they called in law enforcement who shot the cat.

The cougar was probably one of the dispersing males from the Black Hills or one of the western states. This cat could have been moving along the Missouri River corridor and ran into the urban area of South Sioux City. Cougar sometimes disperse along river corridors that provide some cover and often abundant food supply with their concentration of deer.  This cat appeared to be resting and, as far as we know, had not been treed by dogs.  Cougar usually hunt at dawn or dusk and find a sheltered place during the day to rest.   Perhaps in this urban area there was not a lot of cover and the tree, which is NOT a typical resting place for cougar, was the best hiding place he could find. 

Nebraska, like South Dakota and some other states that have cougar passing through or have resident cats, has a policy of killing cougar that end up in urban areas, which explains why the animal was shot.   That may seem harsh but I think it is good policy.  A cougar in a residential area increases the risk of human/cougar encounters and if we are to live with cougar in our farm states with their human altered landscape it is wise to remove cats that might became habituated to humans.

The press release of the Nebraska Game and Parks on this cougar can be found by clicking here. For reports on other sighting in this area click here.
--------

References and sources

Claeys, J. 2004. Mountain Lion Killed in South Sioux City. Sioux City Journal of November 24, 2004.

Morrison, Bruce (of Nebraska GFC) 2004 Re: Good job on cougar and thanks.  Email to author of Nov. 29, 2004.

Nebraska Game and Parks press release. 2004.  Mountain Lion Shot in South Sioux City.  Available on line at url;

James F. Mahaffy
Biology Department
Dordt College
Sioux Center, Iowa 51250

Page created by James Mahaffy on March 18, 2005 at 11:38 AM
Updated on August 30, 2005 at 9:21 PM