The Springfield News Leader reports (http://sgfnow.co/TiNKKr) that the mountain lion was captured by a trail camera in Shannon County earlier this month. The photograph of a mountain lion walking in the forest at night was taken on public land near Eminence, and the department’s Mountain Lion Response Team confirmed the sighting late last week.

The department has confirmed 32 of the hundreds of mountain lion reports in Missouri since 1994.

Other confirmed mountain lion sightings have been scattered around the state. The department says there’s no confirmed evidence of a breeding mountain lion population in Missouri, and it appears the animals are coming from western states.

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