Was This A Cougar That Was Spotted Near Kilkenny? It Sure Looks Like It

In a post to social media on Sunday, Matt Mader shared some images that he had discovered on his trail-cam that was left out North and East of Kilkenny late last week. The images show what appears to be a cougar stalking a deer around 8pm Thursday night, right after it had gotten dark. You don't have to take my word on it, check out the pictures that Matt let me share.

Matt went on to write in his post that there has been "No other sign of the animal since. The last pic is the cat[s] stalking a deer. It’s probably long gone never to be seen again by now."

Wow how intense would it be for you if you looked out into the woods and you saw those glowing eyes looking back at you?

Could this cat be the same one people have seen or found footprints of near Dodge Center, Kenyon, and Faribault over the last few years? Maybe.

According to the Minnesota DNR website "Mountain lions...have relatively large home ranges as female mountain lions can maintain home ranges of 10-135 square miles and males maintain 54-293 square mile home ranges."

The DNR webpage goes ton to state that "mountain lions are active mainly during the night and at dawn and dusk. They hunt by stalking their prey, or by springing from cover when prey is close. Their main prey items are large hooved animals, but they will also eat a variety of rodents, medium-sized mammals, and carnivores smaller than themselves"

We see that this cat is out at dusk/dark and it appears to be stalking the deer in the photos.

Most of the time in the past the photos we have seen of possible cougars have always been near a flowing body of water as well, as it seems that the cats like to travel along the streams and rivers. Where these photos were taken the Cannon River runs nearby.

I reached out to the DNR for their opinion on the photos. When I get some information back from them I will share what they thought about the photos.

Whatever it is, it sure looks interested in where that deer has been. A big thanks to Matt for letting me share his photos!