JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (AP) -- A trail camera set up to keep track of the movements of deer instead captured a clear image of a cougar roaming central Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources confirmed Monday that the photo snapped in Morgan County is indeed a cougar. The picture clearly shows the big cat walking past a camera set up along a trail through a wooded area.
It's only the fourth confirmed sighting of a cougar since the cats were driven from Illinois in the 1870s.
Mark Cobb of Sherman hunts on property north of Jacksonville and captured the cougar on his motion-sensitive camera.
Biologist Bob Bluett of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says it's impossible to say if the cougar is still around.
