Bobcats and house cats-along with coyotes, foxes, deer and even rabbits-have also been mistaken for mountain lions. Dog tracks and dogs themselves are the number one and number two cases of misidentification. What about the hundreds of others? Some turned out to be different animals. Although hundreds of recorded sightings have been reported, less than 30В have yielded enough physical evidence to clearly confirm the presence of a mountain lion. As compelling as a reported sighting may be, we must gather hard evidence before we can say, вЂњyes, we have a confirmed mountain lion sighting.вЂќД®ach year the Wildlife Department investigates dozens of these reports. Furthermore the agency has no plans to do so.Д«ecause mountain lions are reclusive animals, it's hard to know exactly when and where they are present. ODWC has never stocked, relocated or released any mountain lions in the state of Oklahoma. One thing is certain, despite many rumors and claims to the contrary. In 1957, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation listed the mountain lion as a game species with a closed season. Further reports continued into September of 1984, where the refuge manager observed a mountain lion on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. Accounts continued into 1953 when an Oklahoma State University mammalogist documented tracks of a mountain lion southeast of Canton Lake in northwest Oklahoma. Sightings and evidence of cougars have been documented back to 1852, where two cougars were killed in southwest Oklahoma. People also killed almost all of the deer, the mountain lionsвЂ™ primary food source. As the countryside was settled and developed, the large predators were shot. Once there were lionsДЄlthough mountain lions, sometimes called cougars, pumas, panthers, painters, or catamounts, were common in Oklahoma and elsewhere in the Plains prior to European settlement, they were eradicated during the 19th century. But we have far fewer than rumors would lead you to believe. вЂњDo we have mountain lions here or not?вЂќ The short answer is yes, sometimes. The mountain lion is one of Oklahoma's most elusive and discussed wildlife species.

Mountain lion map