North Texas' Mountain Lion is Dead, State's Wildlife Department Says

The state's wildlife department is reporting that the mountain lion recently spotted in North Texas has been killed.

December 17, 2020

Poor kitty. Photo by Robert Thiemann on Unsplash

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In recent weeks, news of a mountain lion roaming around Dallas County has captivated North Texas residents. Now, the state’s wildlife department is reporting that the big cat has been killed.

A deer hunter “legally harvested” the cougar, which may also have been the one spotted in Rowlett in late November and near Princeton earlier this month, said Stephanie Garcia, spokeswoman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Slain in Hunt County, the animal was an adult male and weighed around 160 pounds.

Although mountain lions are a rare spectacle in northeast Texas, they’re common in parts of the state’s southern and western regions, Garcia said in an email. There hadn’t been a confirmed cougar spotting in northeast Texas since 2018, when one was seen in Grayson County near the Oklahoma border. Prior to that, there had been no confirmed sightings in the area.

Earlier this month, Tarrant County's medical examiner reported in a preliminary finding that a 28-year-old man’s death could have been caused by a m ountain lion, but the state’s wildlife department disagreed. Even still, some took to social media to threaten violence against big cats.

R.I.P. North Texas cougar, we hardly knew ye.

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Simone Carter is a Staff Writer for the Dallas Observer where she primarily covers news. Prior to joining the Observer staff in June 2020, Simone worked as a freelance music journalist and has written for publications like Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Weekly, the Denton Record-Chronicle and more. She received both her bachelor's and master's in journalism from the University of North Texas and graduated summa cum laude. She’s earned the Barbara Jordan Media Award for Written/Print from the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities, among other honors.

Contact: Simone Carter

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