http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/image_archive/2227652.jpg> Kentucky Fish and Wildlife biologists perform a necropsy on a mountain lion killed by a game warden in Bourbon County last year. (KDFW photo)

Independent wildlife experts and agency personnel from other states are questioning the official conclusion by the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife that a mountain lion killed in late 2014 was released or escaped from captivity, and did not find its way to The Bluegrass State on its own.

Officials with the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife announced Aug. 25 that a 5-year-old, 125-pound mountain lion killed by a game warden in December 2014 after a Bourbon County property owner's dog chased it into a tree was likely brought to the state by someone or had been kept and a pet and released. It was the first of its species to be confirmed in Kentucky for more than a century.

The Kentucky agency said its investigation concluded the animal was too healthy to have been living on its own, and at five years old, too long-in-the-tooth for what's called a "dispersing male," on the move to claim new territory.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Biologist Steven Dobey noted that a 5-year old lion should already have an established home range and matured beyond the roaming age, and that long-distance traveling is typically the behavior of a 1½-to 2-year-old mountain lion.

"The age of this lion is huge," said Dobey. "This was a mature adult. We have consulted with western biologists who work closely with lions and they agree that a 5-year-old lion is living where it is going to spend the rest of his life."

Fish and Wildlife Deputy Commissioner and wildlife biologist Karen Waldrop agreed, saying: "There is no evidence supporting this animal traveled that distance on its own, or even spent any length of time on the ground here. This was either a released or escaped captive lion."

Dobey said the absence of previous sighting reports and trail camera photos of the lion were also significant in their conclusion.

But The Cougar Network, a respected group of experts on the species, said genetic testing indicated the animal originated in South Dakota's Black Hills, a region well-known as a source for dispersing cougars.

"The thing that was the linchpin for me is that it came from the Black Hills," said the Cougar Network's Michelle LaRue, a conservation biologist and research associate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota. The Black Hills is a known source of dispersing males, she said.

"We are not an advocacy group," LaRue said. "We just look at the facts."

Further, LaRue said necropsy results found no tattoos and the animals claws were intact. Typically, captive animals are tattooed and declawed. And though the animal was in good condition, it was infested with tapeworms and ticks implying it had been consuming wild mammals for an extended period.

Some are suggesting the Kentucky agency is sticking to its "released or transported" story due to controversy surrounding the species and its predatory nature.

In recent years, multiple mountain lions have been confirmed in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, though biologists doubt there are breeding numbers in those states. Sightings have also been confirmed in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. In June 2011, a 140-pound lion was hit by a car near Milford, Conn. That distance, more than 1,500 miles from the Black Hills, is believed to be the longest recorded journey ever by a mountain lion. That animal was recorded several times in Minnesota and Wisconsin before ending up in Connecticut.

Last week, an article in the Rapid City, SD Journal about the wandering lion quoted John Kanta, regional wildlife manager for the South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks, who agreed that lions originating in the Black Hills have been known to travel great distances.

"It is absolutely possible this mountain lion traveled that distance on its own," Kanta said, "There is no doubt in my mind it could cover that distance."

But Mark Marraccini, speaking for the Kentucky agency, said there's no denying mountain lions have been known to disperse for great distances, it's just that Kentucky's experts on the case have their doubts.

"No one here is saying that it couldn't have walked here, but we think it was brought here," Marraccini said. "Walking here from the Black Hills would certainly be an extraordinary journey, so we would need some extraordinary evidence that it made it here by itself."

So without trailcam photos, tracking collars, visual data or other evidence, no one will ever know – for certain – how that 5-year-old mountain lion found its way to a tree in suburban Lexington, Ky. last year.

No one, that is, except the lion. And he's not talking.

- J.R. Absher