Illinois Cougar Watch

Photo by Pat Crawford

PLATO TOWNSHIP — Car salesman Jack Metz was just getting home from work at dusk one warm evening last summer.

As he entered the driveway of his home near the intersection of Muirhead and Plank roads, something caught his eye over near the garbage cans. It took Metz a few seconds to realize that what he had seen was a large cat, probably black, the size of a cougar or panther.

“Almost before I could focus on it, it jumped into the cornfield next door and was gone,” Metz says. “But it was bigger than a coyote and it moved very fast. It didn’t move like a dog. It jumped, like a cat does.

Metz says he told a few friends, but “I thought I must have been seeing things.” So he didn’t press the issue very far.

Until, that is, neighbor Charlie MacArthur talked to him recently.

MacArthur — a landscape contractor who owns greenhouses, ponds and a tree nursery on 10-plus acres along Plank Road — had given permission to a friend, ambulance company owner Pat Crawford, to hunt on his property. MacArthur knew his land was a favorite haunt for white-tailed deer. The damage to his trees told him that each morning.

Crawford wanted to know the best place to set up a treestand from which to bowhunt. On the weekend before Thanksgiving, he tied a camera activated by a motion detector to a tree near the back of MacArthur’s property. It was about 30 feet from the edge of the same cornfield where Metz had caught his fleeting glimpse.

A few days later, Crawford returned, removed the camera’s memory card and started going through photos it had captured. He was irritated when he realized he had forgotten to turn on the flash attachment. Though the camera had been tripped by many things moving past it at night, those photos showed nothing but darkness. The hunter felt encouraged when one daytime shot showed two small deer at the edge of the fence, apparently heading for breakfast.

And then Crawford came to a photo shot about half past noon on Sunday, Nov. 23.

<Read the rest of this article>

Kane County, Sightings, Uncategorized Kane County cougar, Plato Township cougar

Welcome to the “new and improved” IllinoisCougarWatch.com.  Hopefully you’ll enjoy some of the improvements we’ve made around here.  Most importantly, we’ve added a forum, which will allow you to share your cougar sightings, stories, photos, and videos with everyone else.  Of course, you can still email us at admin@illinoiscougarwatch.com if you’d like.

Another feature that was requested was a map showing all of the reported cougar sightings in the state.  That work is well underway, and should be ready soon. 

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Announcements Illinois Cougar Watch

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Announcements

We received the following email on November 3, 2008:

Yesterday afternoon around 3:00pm I was at my father in laws small farm. It is located in LaSalle Co near Rt 52 and Rt 71. I was getting ready to unhook and store my boat for the winter. It was a very nice day bright sunshine and cool. After putting some air in the trailer tires for the boat, I spotted what I first thought was a deer walking the tree line of a cut bean field about 300 yards out.

I watched it for a couple of seconds and noticed it just looked a little different than a deer and then it jumped up and pounced on something. I thought it might be a coyote and grabbed some binoculars out of the truck.  When I looked up and focused in I couldn’t believe my eyes. I took the binoculars away from my eyes in shock and looked out at the field again to locate this brown thing in the field. I put the binoculars back up to my eyes and sure enough it was a large cat with a long tail just walking slowly, stopping and looking around. 

I watched it for 30 seconds and was 100% percent sure it was a large cat at 300 yards the same size as an average deer. I ran into the house and told my father in law and he came out and seen it too. We watched it together for another minute swapping the binoculars back and forth. It was just walking along with the sunshine just making this thing glow. I could see the muscles in the hind legs and the small head it was incredible. I’ am a avid outdoorsmen and I know what I saw and it was a cougar.

La Salle County, Sightings LaSalle County

These photos were supposedly taken by a trail camera south of Edgington, IL.  We can neither confirm or deny the authenticity of these photos.  Let us know what you think.

***UPDATE: Please check out the comments on this post.  These photos are NOT from Illinois.

Photos, Rock Island County, Sightings cougar, edgington, Rock Island County

We received the following on November 25:

I still think that I am crazy for thinking what I saw might be a big cat.  But Sunday afternoon while walking to deer hunting spot in McLean County IL, I stopped about half way out to watch Cock Pheasant, I had seen any birds on this farm for years  and was very happy to see it.  It walked off into the grass and then I saw something move by the timber, about 100-150 yars away.  It was a light brown color and running fast.  I know it was not a deer and when I first saw it I thought it was Coyote, but it was to big and ran different.
 
What I saw ran real low to the ground and its tail had a curve to.  If I was still living in Kansas and Hunting I would not have thought twice about it, that is what it was a cougar and mount lion.  
 
I had a friend that I was talking to and he said that there have been some reported a few counties away.  Any truth to that??
 
My questions is how does one go about getting pictures of one.  What call can use to try to get it back out and get a picture of it.  What happens if it comes out during second deer season and comes at me in my ground blind or chair.  Can one shoot it to protect ones self or can I yell at it and make it run away.  Or am I just crazy??

C. Witham, Danvers IL

McLean County McLean County

i live in Grayville IL and i live in the country . people that live by us said a cougar ate their cat. My sister and i saw one when we were putting our chickens up it growled at us . we shined the flashlight and something black and it was bigger than a dog and had a long tail and greenish eyes.
-submitted by D. Malone

I was awake at 3:30 working in my office one morning last week.  I thought I heard a strange animal sound… but kept working.  About 5:30 I heard what sounded like a woman screaming southeast of our chicken house.  I went out with a spot light, but could not see anything (it was not daylight yet).  Later in the day I was telling the man who was combining the corn about what I heard.  He told me he had seen something the day before “slinking” into some standing corn from where he was combining.  He didn’t get a good look, but thought it was a very big cat!  We live in open corn/soybean country, about 5 miles from the Sangamon River.  I don’t know what it was that I heard, but I know I’ve never heard anything like it before (I’m 69 and have lived here all my life.)
-submitted by W. James

I was driving this evening to mcdonalds with my girlfriend in her parents home town of steeling, il (whiteside county). We were by her parents house and the Latin American center toward the edge of town, we both saw what appeared to be a deer edging a clearing, when we got closer we realized it was a cat, only it was the size of a medium to large dog with a 2 foot long tail, I grew up in northern California so I have seen them before, I had to check online to see if anyone else has ever seen them in Illinois and sure enough I found your website, I went back to check for the cat so I could take a picture but we scoured the area and it was no where to be seen. I would wager my life on what I saw tonight, it was the real deal!
-submitted by J. Boyd

Sightings, White County, Whiteside County cougars

While down by my barn today, November 4th, 08, I noticed a car come to a complete stop on the road just in front of my barns.   The occupants were looking to the north at something. Thought they needed directions but they were looking away from me in amazement.  Maybe they were looking at a coyote or deer? Wrong. When I looked over to see what they were staring at, I was amazed too.
 
 It was a large cat with a long tail coming to the ground and back up slightly at the end. He was very large and definitely from the cat family. He was walking on a field that was recently harvested with soybeans and didn’t look one bit afraid. Sorta took command and walked slowly, pausing for a few seconds from time to time and then walked on to the woods.   He was larger than a German Shepherd and had the slanky-sleek walk of a cat. His coat was golden-colored like the corn field just south of me. If he would have been in there, no one would have ever see him. On this day however, he decided to stroll along the recently harvested soy bean field and there, was quite a bit more obvious. My heart was racing for about an hour. My oldest daughter was also witness to this. I contacted the police, animal control and conservation police of my sighting.
 
He was a magnificant animal and I hope that he was not trying to get any ideas about my sheep that were just south of him. The wind was blowing to the north where he was located.  
 
Tonight, I will be closing all the outside barn doors  to prevent him from thinking twice and to keep my sheep safe.
 
I am 99.9% sure this was a cougar, aka puma, aka mountain lion.  A beautiful animal that has every right to live on this earth like we do but I just hope he keeps away.
 
P.S. This was not a bob cat. Bob cats have “bobbed tails” and I have personally seen them in Minnesota on some of my fishing trips. If I didn’t know any better, I thought I was staring at something that should have been on the African tundra from one of the National Geographic films. No, I was not drinking and no, I don’t do drugs to those who may question this.
 
Sincerely,
 
Mrs. S McGrath
Marseilles, illinois

La Salle County, Sightings LaSalle County

I found your website after my sister saw a mountain lion crossing a two lane highway near Carbondale Illinois yesterday. I told her mountain lions are not supposed to be found in Illinois. I live in California and am a  nature enthusiast. I have been fascinated by big cats for many years and hope and pray I’ll see a mountain lion someday. I have had nearly 40 bobcat sightings and so when sister called me I tried to tell her what she’d seen was a bobcat. It would be nearly impossible to spot a mountain lion unless it escaped from a zoo. She and her husband assured me it was a MOUNTAIN LION! The long tail, the size the color etc. were spot on. Additionally, my brother in law taught at Southern Illinois University for many years  in Edwardsville and my sister attended there for 4 years. They both saw the SIUE mountain lion mascot being walked on numerous occasions. They assured me they know EXACTLY what a Mountain Lion looks like and this was one. It was tawny and probably a female by the size they described. Both the cougars at SIUE were female and they said it looked the same size. My sister was not driving and got a very good look at the cat. It was close to dusk, but still plenty of light to see the cat. I was so excited to find your website and I have asked her to please report the sighting. I couldn’t help jumping in to report this! If you have any questions for her about the highway she was on etc. please don’t hesitate to write back!

Jill Pries Clapp
Sunnyvale, CA

Jackson County, Sightings Jackson County