Mountain Lion Hit, Killed By Car On I-88 In Kane County

KANE COUNTY, IL — Authorities called to what they thought was a collision between a car and a deer Sunday night on Interstate 88 in Kane County learned the vehicle had actually struck a mountain lion.

Illinois State Police District 15 troopers responded to I-88 near Dauberman Road in Kaneville Township at 8:23 p.m. on Sunday where they found the dead mountain lion, according to the Daily Herald. No one in the car that hit the animal was injured.

The animal was transferred by the Illinois State Police to an Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) wildlife biologist and has been delivered to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for a full necropsy and DNA analysis, according to a statement from IDNR.

Mountain lion sightings in Illinois are very rare, and the University of Illinois analysis is meant to provide information to biologists about the animal, its place of origin and its exploratory movements across the Midwest.

IDNR experts believe the mountain lion that was fatally struck by the car could be the same animal captured on a trail camera on private property in Whiteside County in late September and confirmed by wildlife biologists from IDNR and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to the IDNR statement.

IDNR said mountain lions "were eliminated from Illinois prior to the 1870s due to habitat loss and overharvest," but authorities still receive numerous reports of mountain lion sightings each year — most of which turn out to be a case of mistaken identity and are really feral cats or bobcats, officials said.

State officials are monitoring another mountain lion that was reportedly spotted in western Illinois earlier this month. That big cat has a GPS collar that was originally attached in November 2021 by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission as part of an ongoing research project, IDNR said.

Mountain lions have been protected in Illinois since 2015, according to state wildlife officials, and it is illegal to hunt, kill or "harass them" unless they pose an imminent threat. "The IDNR reminds the public that it is very rare for a mountain lion to pose a threat to people or property," officials said.