Social media buzz reports wild cat sightings in Grundy County

A few recent posts on social media have described sightings of some pretty big cats out in local fields and wild areas. These are not just your ordinary house or farm cats, the posters say, but something a little more noteworthy.

They are bobcats, they say, or in the case of one farmer, a mountain lion.

One farmer was combining corn late this fall just outside Mazon when he saw movement further out in the field.

“I saw a bunch of deer running,” said the man, who asked not to have his name given. “I knew they saw something that bothered them.”

When he looked to see what they were running from, he saw a “big cat.” It was not chasing the deer, but it was near enough that the deer were alarmed.

“It had a long tail,” he said. “It had something in its mouth that looked like a rabbit. It had a long tail. I thought, that’s a big cat. It’s one I would not want to be around.”

The farmer is sure it was a mountain lion. He said he’s been working the fields for a long time and has never seen anything like it, although he has heard stories of big cat species in the area now and then from his buddies who hunt.

Longtime Mazon resident Laurie Pfeifer said she’s not surprised when she hears these reports. Many of her family and friends are farmers.

“We’ve had cougars or bobcats seen here for 20 years,” she said. “I remember people talking about it. That’s not an unusual thing for me to hear.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all to hear there are mountain lions here,” University of Illinois Youth Educator Shannon Range said. “There have been sightings in these areas. Typically, their home would not be in this area, but it’s absolutely possible.”

Stan McTaggart, Wildlife Diversity Program Manager at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, said the possibility of seeing a mountain lion in Grundy County is pretty slim, but he wouldn’t absolutely count it out.

“I never say never,” he said. “There have been a handful of mountain lions documented in Illinois over the last 25 years, but it’s extremely rare. We do not have a breeding population here.”

Mountain lions, also known as cougars, are the largest of the cats found in North America. According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources' site, WildlifeIllinois.org, mountain lions have a tan or tawny coat on top, with white or cream-colored undersides. Their ears are rounded and tails long and thick and tipped with black. They stand 27-31 inches at the shoulder, are 7-8 feet long and weigh 75-160 pounds.

Bobcats are much smaller, at about 21 inches at the shoulder, 30 inches long, and they weigh 20-40 pounds. They are yellowish to reddish brown with black spots and streaks. They appear more grayish brown in the winter. Their underside fur is white with dark spots. They have tufted ears and a short tail.

McTaggart said bobcats have been reported in every county in Illinois.

“They are not a huge population,” he said, “but they’re definitely distributed throughout the state.”

The occasional mountain lion seen in Illinois, he said, is likely a young male striking out from his home in South Dakota looking for unoccupied territory and a mate. However, there are no female mountain lions here, so they just pass through.

“These males will just keep wandering, sometimes hundreds or thousands of miles,” McTaggart said. “Sometimes they turn around and go back in a giant loop.”

Confirmed mountain lion reports in recent years have come from Morgan County, Cass County, Sangamon County, Jo Daviess County, Effingham County and even Cook County.

Many times, bobcats, dogs and even deer are mistaken for mountain lions. McTaggart said that fairly recently, a mountain lion scare in St. Louis turned out to be a house cat. It’s the scale of the background that can confuse people, he said. Especially when the sighting is in the backdrop of a large field, with no scale.

Those who happen to encounter a wild mountain lion are advised to not approach it. Slowly back away while standing up straight, and put your arms up in the air to appear a larger target. If attacked, according to the IDNR’s site, do not play dead. Always try to fight it off.

McTaggart said bobcats will not normally attack people unless they are cornered.

“You never want to corner any type of wild animal,” he said.