Mountain lion killed on I-88 in Kane County

Illinois State Police troopers responding Sunday night to a call about a car that struck a deer on Interstate 88 near Dauberman Road in Kane County were surprised to find a dead mountain lion instead.

District 15 troopers responded at 8:23 p.m. to the eastbound lanes at milepost 104.25 in Kaneville Township and found the mountain lion.

No one in the vehicle that hit the animal was injured.

State police took the body of the animal to a wildlife biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It has since been delivered to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a full necropsy and DNA analysis.

Mountain lions, also known as cougars, pumas, and catamounts, are extremely rare in Illinois. But there have been recent sightings.

IDNR experts believe this may be the same mountain lion captured on a trail camera in Whiteside County on Sept. 28. That sighting was confirmed by the IDNR and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A news release from the IDNR said officials are monitoring another mountain lion reported in western Illinois in early October. That animal has a GPS collar that originally was attached in November 2021 by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission as part of an ongoing research project on their mountain lion population, including movement patterns.

Mountain lions were eliminated from Illinois before the 1870s due to habitat loss and overharvesting. Confirmed sightings in Illinois during the past few decades consist of younger animals, typically originating from a population in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Mountain lions have been a protected species in Illinois since 2015. It is unlawful to hunt, kill, or harass them unless they pose an imminent threat to a person or property.

The public can report large carnivore sightings at wildlifeillinois.org/sightings/report/.