Illinois
DNR: Mountain lion struck, killed along Illinois highway
SYCAMORE, Ailing. (AP) — A mountain lion that was struck and killed final weekend alongside a northern Illinois freeway will likely be analyzed by biologists searching for to uncover the uncommon animal’s origins, state wildlife officers mentioned. The Illinois Division of Pure Sources mentioned Monday the mountain lion died Sunday after being hit by a car alongside Interstate 88 in DeKalb County. Illinois State Police recovered the carcass, which is able to bear a necropsy and DNA evaluation on the College of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.
The DNR mentioned that evaluation will present perception “concerning the animal, its place of birth, and exploratory actions throughout the Midwest.”
DNR specialists consider the mountain lion could be the similar one recorded in late September by a path digital camera on personal property in northwestern Illinois’ Whiteside County, which abuts Iowa.
Mountain lions had been eradicated from Illinois previous to the 1870s resulting from habitat loss and looking. They’ve been a protected species in Illinois since 2015.
Whereas mountain lion sightings are extraordinarily uncommon in Illinois, the DNR mentioned confirmed sightings over the previous few a long time have consisted of youthful animals, sometimes originating from a inhabitants in South Dakota’s Black Hills.
The DNR is monitoring one other mountain lion that was reported in early October in western Illinois after touring east throughout Iowa into Illinois. That animal is fitted with a GPS collar for the Nebraska Recreation and Parks Fee’s ongoing analysis into Nebraska’s mountain lion inhabitants and its actions.