re: Mountain Lions in Louisiana?

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Isn't there something about state agencies not liking to say/admit to there being a mountain lion population because they would be required to do studies or set up a program for them? i know that is or was the case in michigan

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Have always heard this.... at last here in Alabama. That the Dept of Conservation might have to even go as far as considering them an endangered species.

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Isn't there something about state agencies not liking to say/admit to there being a mountain lion population because they would be required to do studies or set up a program for them?

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There might be some truth to that, but LDWF has confirmed sightings in the past. If there was an actual population of them in Louisiana, there would be far more confirmed sightings occurring than there are. There's just no way LDWF could keep it quiet.

You know if they refused to acknowledge it, someone would go to the news about it.

Here’s one in Mississippi

LINK /

I believe it has to do with “breeding population” and if there’s slight evidence of a small breeding population in Louisiana then they would be required to start a protection program. Most of the sightings are young males from other states, but in my honest opinion there could be a small breeding population in the hills of Louisiana. There is more than enough food especially with wild hog populations to support such a group.

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They killed one in Bossier City in 2008

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I believe it has to do with “breeding population” and if there’s slight evidence of a small breeding population in Louisiana then they would be required to start a protection program

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right, important distinction I should have made

The thing about all the sightings in Michigan specifically is... it’s a peninsula and the bottom half of the state is very populated or completely flat farmland. I could be wrong but I don’t see a significant # coming up from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and traveling hundreds of miles north. Last I checked the state hasn’t said there’s a breeding population though.

I saw a big black cat come out into my shooting lane when I was deer hunting near Opelousas a few years back. It was circling the stand, right about dark. I could be wrong about it being a cat, but it was certainly not a dog and if it wasn't a cat then idfk what it could have been . Additionally, I also remember hearing shreaking sounds that sounded like a big cat during the night as well when I was little, although never saw any when I heard the sound.

I reckon there is atleast a few down here.

Yeh the "shreaking" I was referring to was about 45 miles south of Monroe. I would always hear it when I stayed at a buddies house when I was little and it freaked me out the first time I heard it, sounded like a woman screaming her arse off. Whether or not it was indeed a mountain lion I honestly can't say and I hear a lot of skepticism about mountain lions in La, but idk I can definitely believe that they exists here to some degree.

I was told about that sighting. There have been multiple game camera sightings near Oak Ridge as well. Pretty big cat from the pictures I saw. If I can get the pictures from my friends game camera sent to me then I’ll try and post them.

I was invited to hunt some private property once near Big Cane/Palmetto area. Met at the camp house prior to an afternoon/evening hunt, where I was given a photo album of camera pics to identify shooter vs non-shooter. This was a large area w 21 stands, IIRC.

Plenty big deer and bears contained in the album. But the one pic I remember most can be described as nothing other than a big cat w a long tail and dark appearance. There were no other possibilities of genus. It was a mountain lion size w pigmentation.

I asked the owner why this pic isn’t all over the news, and his answer was that’s exactly why. LOL I offered the possibility that this cat’s color may be due to its fur being wet from crossing water, but that answer just sounded flimsy looking at the details in the pic before me

More in my neck of the woods, Lake Fausse Pointe, an employee of LDWF sighted a cougar, and they later identified/recovered scat from it as confirmation.