LITTLE ROCK — Over the past 10 to 12 years I have enjoyed watching state wildlife agencies do the “mountain lion” dance.

It is the government version of the Harlem Shake, with often comical contortions.

During the early 2000s, despite an increased number of sightings, the Missouri Department of Conservation denied emphatically that wild mountain lions were in the Show-Me State. Then, in 2002, a motorist killed one with a car near downtown Kansas City. The MDC’s response was, essentially, “Well, we might have had one, but not any more.”

A year later, another motorist killed a lion on U.S. 70 near Fulton, Mo.

The MDC’s response: “Well, it appears that we might have had two, but not any more.”

Since then, the MDC has capitulated under the burden of overwhelming evidence. Fourteen confirmed mountain lion sightings between 1996-2010, including four in 2010 alone. A hunter killed a big male lion near LaPlata, Mo., in 2011, about the same time that the MDC confirmed a sighting in St. Louis County. Another one was killed in southwest Missouri, in Texas County, in September 2011.

My former boss at theMDC, Dan Witter, told me after we both left the agency that he had found definitive mountain lion sign on his property between Jefferson City and Fulton.

In early February, a game camera recorded a mountain lion killing one of the elk the MDC stocked in southeastern Missouri.

Oklahoma has its own version of the Mountain Lion Dance. People claim to have seen mountain lions in the Sooner State, and the Oklahoma Wildlife Department denies it.

I worked there for a few years, too, and behind closed doors it’s a different story.Paul Balkenbush, a biologist who is now the ODWC’s southeast region fisheries biologist, told me about seeing mountain lions while turkey hunting in the late 1990s.

Reliable sources have reported seeing mountain lions in Arkansas, too, people who know the difference between lions, bobcats and coyotes. Why they are here and howthey got here is immaterial. What matters is they are here, and they are probably here to stay.

It’s a natural progression. Increasingly fewer people live in rural areas, so greater amounts of rural land are less populated. Marginal farmland and ranch land is returning to early succession forest, creating larger amounts of wildlife habitat.

Deer are numerous and increasing. Equally significant, wild hogs are numerous and increasing, too. Whitetailed deer is a staple food for mountain lions. Hogs are not a native food source, but they are a ready source of cat food. With the chances of conflict with people diminishing, big cats are simply filling the void of a large natural predator for deer, hogs and, in Missouri’s case, elk.

With so many large river corridors, cats have multiple migration and travel routes into all portions of our state.

Eventually, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission will capitulate to overwhelming evidence, too.

WILDLIFE OFFICER HONORED

Michael Neal, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer, received the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The medal is the highestnational award for valor by a public safety officer. The medal is awarded to public safety officers who have exhibited exceptional courage, regardless of personal safety, in the attempt to save or protect human life.

Neal answered a call for assistance May 20, 2010, after two West Memphis police officers were shot and killed during a traffic stop along Interstate 40. He engaged two gunmen who were in a firefight with Sheriff Dick Busby and chief deputy W.A. Wren. Busby and Wren had only handguns. Their assailants fired upon them with an AK-47 rifle and a handgun.

Neal used his truck to ram and disable the suspects’ van and divert the gunmen’s attention away from the Busby and Wren. The gunmen opened fire on Neal’s truck and fired multiple rounds through his windshield. Neal returned fire with his issued AR-15. He disabled the driver and possibly the passenger before reversing his truck and backing out of the line of fire so other officers could continue the firefight. Both suspects were pronounced dead at the scene.

By putting himself in harm’s way, Neal saved the lives of Busby and Wren, both of whom were injured by the suspects. Neal was slightly injured.

Sports, Pages 22 on 02/21/2013