Mountain Lion sighting confirmed at Oliver Reservoir

Attention all campers, and lake goers, please pay close attention to what you are doing and where you are at Oliver Reservoir. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission is investigating a report of a mountain lion spotted at the lake.

Local law enforcement as well as the Nebraska Game and Parks has planned on setting up trail cams to try to snap a few photos of this big kitty and what she could have with her from all of the tracks in the area and a Facebook post earlier last week thoughts are she has at least one cub.

According to Kimball Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jason Hottell, he had to go check out the lake for himself. “There were so many sets of tracks, they were just all over that area.”

Mountain lions are nearly always uniformly tan in color with black tipped tails and dark fur on the back of the ears. Until they teach about a year old they have dark spots and a dark-ringed tail. These cats can live in a variety of habitats, but prefer, rougher wooded areas.

According to the National Wildlife Foundation cats average a travel radius of 10 to 370 square feet, and can maintain territories that average 100 square miles in size. A mountain lion can run for miles at a speed of 10 miles per hour, but in a dead spring they can reach speeds up to 50 miles per hour.

If you do happen to encounter a mountain lion you want to remember to act big, for example raising your arms above your head, you want to make a lot of noise, and talk in a firm voice, wave your arms. In the majority of cases this will detour the large cat. If, in case these first options do not work and you end up in a fight with the lion, remember to fight back, unlike when dealing with a bear, you want try to get back up on your feet, and keep fighting, this will again detour the mountain lion once they realize you are in charge. Make sure to pick children up so that if they see the encounter they don’t decide to run.

One important thing to remember is not to purposely stress the cat out, and don’t do things to aggravate the mountain lion, also remember this is their habitat too!

Please call the local law enforcement and game warden if you do encounter a cat or see signs that one is near.