Illinois Cougar Watch

Hello
My name is Patrick Nelson and I have a few questions concerning the habits of wild cats. Also these questions are due to an instance that happened on the night of November 13 at around ten o’clock at night.

Two of my friends and myself were out raccoon hunting and while we were out in one of my friend’s fields we noticed a larger animal around 100 to 150 yards in distance away. My friend was taking aim at the animal thinking that it was a coyote when the other individual shone a light in the direction of fire. Through the scope my friend said he saw a large animal that he could tell was not a coyote and then decided to only continue to observe. The animal then stopped and looked around as if to see were the light was coming from.

When the animal looked in our direction my friend said that it had a green reflection in the eyes and it appeared to stand up then after it looked in our direction and it seemed to lay down and disappear.

Now I’m sure that you’re wondering what I mean by stand up. I don’t mean literally on its rear legs; it was more like it raised up from a stalking position to see the light better. And also whether it means anything or not I believe if it was a cat of some kind that it may have been stalking a deer that we had scared out of hiding when we arrived in the field and the animal in question was following the same path and direction that the deer had taken. We know this because we also observed the deer take the path while we were in about the same position for both instances. We are not sure what we saw but a wild cat of some kind is about the only logical option that we could think of.

Now my first question is what kind of cats are known to be in this part of the state? We were near Andover, Illinois which is about fifteen minutes south of Moline, Illinois. Second is what are the most common prey for wild cats and would it be able to take down a buck of decent size? We are not sure of the size of the buck that I stated previously but could tell it was decent size. Third is what are the normal times of the day that wild cats are out? Like I stated earlier it was around ten at night when we sighted the animal. My fourth question I’m not too sure if it will have any bearing at all but I was wondering that if certain animals had a certain color that was reflected from their eyes or if their was no specific color to type of animal. If you could answer these questioned and send them back at the same email address it would be appreciated. Also if you have any thoughts please feel free to state them and if you have any questions for me please feel free to ask. I will have no objection to answering them.

Thank you for your time

Patrick Nelson

Henry County, Sightings