Tests reveal mountain lion killed in Connecticut was from South Dakota

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said Tuesday that results of genetic tests show that the mountain lion killed in Milford, Conn., in June made its way to the state from a midwest population in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Its movements were actually tracked and recorded through Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Tests also show that the Milford animal was likely the same on spotted in Greenwich. USFWS supervisory veterinary pathologist Tabitha Viner performed the necropsy. Google estimates that the story was covered by media about 500 times this week.

This mountain lion traveled a distance of more than 1,500 miles from its original home in South Dakota – representing one of the longest movements ever recorded for a land mammal and nearly double the distance ever recorded for a dispersing mountain lion. The state is waiting for results that may further identify how the cougar reached Connecticut.

Read the press release and see a presentation at: http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=4013&Q=483778.

For more information on cougars and to see the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 5-year review on the eastern cougar from March 2011, visit www.fws.gov/northeast/ecougar.

Contact Dennis Schain, CT DEEP, at 860-424-3110 for more information on the Connecticut cougar. Feel free to contact me, Meagan Racey, with the USFWS (413-253-8558), for information on the eastern cougar 5-year review released in March 2011.