The results of the poll “Do you agree with releasing the Reynolds County mountain lion?” showed an overwhelming case for letting the lion go: 47 people voted for freedom, and only 1 person said the cat should have been kept in confinement.

Photo by Paula Barton

But mountain lions are still on people’s minds. In Senate Bill 738, introduced February 2, Sen. Bill Stouffer of mid-state Napton wants to make it legal to kill mountain lions without the animal necessarily being an immediate threat.

What do you think? You can answer here or in the poll halfway down the right hand column. As before, please leave us a short comment (see below) why you hold that position. The poll will be open for a week (Until Feb. 10) and then we’ll announce those results.

Republican Sen. Bill Stouffer, of Napton in mid-state Missouri, offered the proposal Thursday. His bill says anyone who kills a mountain lion would have to report it immediately to a state conservation agent and give up the body within 24 hours.

Photo by Paula Barton

The exact wording is: “Section A. Chapter 252, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 252.044, to read as follows: 252.044. Any person may kill a mountain lion in this state, provided that the killing of any such mountain lion shall be reported immediately to an agent of the department of conservation and the intact mountain lion carcass shall be surrendered to the agent within twenty-four hours.”

The story says that Missouri law is silent on the killing of mountain lions, however, according to current MDC regulations, mountain lions, bears, wolves (if any), rattlesnakes and other venomous snakes and other large native predators (excluding non-native feral hogs) are protected species, and may only be legally killed if a person, livestock or personal property is being threatened by the animal.

Missouri has had 27 confirmed mountain lion sightings since 1994, scattered around the state, with a large number in the remote sections of the Missouri Ozarks.

In January, a man in Reynolds County caught a live male mountain lion in a large cage trap. Conservation agents collected DNA samples and released the cat into the wild. The mountain lion bill is SB738.

A Traveler exclusive story on the January lion, including information on other recent lion sightings can be found online in the Traveler e-Edition, (99 cents for three day access) or you may pick up a copy at one of our many eastern Missouri newsstands.

In other news, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) invites photographers around the state to enter its 75th Anniversary Photo Contest. The contest is an effort to help Missourians discover nature by capturing and sharing photos that celebrate the natural wonders of Missouri. Winners will be featured in the October issue of the Missouri Conservationist, as well as on the MDC website and in other media.

This is an online only contest.

The photo contest has seven categories: mammals, plants, reptiles and amphibians, insects and spiders, birds, outdoor recreation, and habitats and landscapes. Entries will be accepted through May 15. Photographers must tag their photos with the exact name of the category they are entering.

A panel of photography and nature experts will select the best entry in each category. Category winners will then be posted on the MDC website starting July 1 for the public can vote for their favorite photo from category winners. The photo with the most votes will be named “Best of Show.” All seven winners will be displayed in the October magazine and other MDC media.

More information and examples of category photos are featured in the February issue of the Missouri Conservationist or online at mdc.mo.gov/conmag. A full list of rules and guidelines can be found on the MDC website at mdc.mo.gov/node/16689. Entries will only be accepted via Flickr, an Internet photo sharing service. To join Flickr, visit flickr.com/groups/mdc75thanniversary/.

• April 14-15 34th Annual Old Greenville Black Powder Rendezvous
• June 16 Kid’s Get Outdoors Fun Day
• June 30 Ranger Willie’s Wet and Wild Waterfest
• August 25 3rd Annual A.C.A.T. Triathlon
• August 31-Sept 3 25-Mile Labor Day Weekend Yard Sale
• September 15-16 21st Annual Old Greenville Days
• September 22 National Public Lands Day
• October 6 W.O.O.D.S. (Wappapello Outdoor Opportunities for Disabled Sportsmen)
• November 23 – December 31 20th Annual Festival of Lights Christmas Auto Tour

The Bill Emerson Memorial Visitor Center also offers FREE interpretive programs from Memorial Day to Labor Day weekend. Make plans to attend programs featuring crafts, puppet shows, nature, history, art, geocaching, survival skills, the flood of 2011, and more. Scheduled programs will be forthcoming. If you take pleasure in sharing your talents with others, then consider doing a program with us at the Visitor Center! Please contact Park Ranger Kathy Dickson for more details.

Come and enjoy your beautiful public lands at Wappapello Lake! For more information, please contact the Wappapello Lake Management Office at (573) 222-8562. Remember, safety is up to you, so buckle up! Life jackets and seat belts do SAVE LIVES.

So you think you’ve had some strange dates? This Valentine’s Day, The Nature Conservancy compiled the top 10 most bizarre examples of love in the wild.

Photo from outdoorhub.com

“Nature can get pretty wild, especially when love is in the air,” said Todd Sampsell, The Nature Conservancy’s Missouri State Director. “While we may find the mating habits of some of these critters bizarre, they actually may remind you of someone you know.”

Unfortunately, many of these creatures are at risk of disappearing forever because of habitat loss, climate change, and other threats.

“Here in Missouri, the greater prairie chicken faces an uncertain future because of habitat loss and fragmentation,” Sampsell said. “The American burying beetle is also in rapid decline, and is now listed as critically endangered. It has been absent from Missouri prairies for decades, but this year we’re partnering with the Saint Louis Zoo and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to bring the beetles back to the Show-Me state.”

To make sure these incredible animals survive in the future, The Nature Conservancy is restoring temperate grasslands in northwest and southwest Missouri. These grasslands are the most endangered, least protected land habitat on Earth, and restoring them not only ensures a future for native Missouri grassland species but it also helps protect Missouri’s rural heritage and economy.

“Nature is powerful, but for many animals their future now depends not only on their mating prowess but on what help we give them,” Sampsell said. “If we don’t act now to protect the lands and water these creatures call home, they may not be around for future generations.”

Learn more at www.nature.org/wildlove

Do these wild lovers remind you of anyone?

1) Deep sea angler fish: “Losing yourself in love”
Male anglerfish bite their mates and permanently fuse to their bodies. Over time, the male’s brain, eyes and organs dissolve until he turns into a small lump, releasing sperm whenever the female is ready to lay eggs. Scientists first thought the lumps were fins before discovering they were the males.

2) Prairie Chickens: “Strut Your Stuff”
Male prairie chickens attract females with loud “booming” noises that can be heard miles away. They also perform an elaborate dance — lowering their heads, erecting their neck feathers, inflating orange air sacks, dropping their wings and pointing their tails, all while frantically stamping their feet.

3) American Burying Beetle: “Family Oriented”
American burying beetles not only are monogamous but also raise their children together. Expectant parents bury dead birds or mice and lay eggs nearby. The parents lie on their backs and use their legs like a conveyor belt to move carcasses up to 200 times their own weight. Once hatched, larvae feed on the carcass or the parents rub their wings together to call the larvae and regurgitate meat into their mouths.

4) Freshwater mussels: “The bait and switch”
Male mussels release sperm into the water, which females capture downstream. Larvae hatch inside the females’ shells but must then attach to a fish to grow. To lure fish, mother mussels wave appendages that look like worms, crayfish or other bait. Some emit a smell of rotting flesh to attract scavenger fish. When fish approach, the mussels shoot the larvae onto the fish.

5) Prairie Vole: “Born to be Faithful”
Unlike most rodents, prairie voles are monogamous. Scientists have discovered that prairie vole faithfulness is caused by hormone receptors located in their brain’s reward centers, giving them the sense of pleasure from monogamy.

6) Bower birds: “Bachelor Pads”
Male bowers of Australia and New Guinea build large and elaborate bachelor pads on forest floors, decorated with flowers, leaves, shells and even stolen coins – anything they think will attract a mate. Some paint the walls with chewed berries, others build lawns of moss. Drab males build the flashiest pads to compensate for their dull colors.

7) Lions: “One Track Mind”
When lions mate, the coupling usually lasts only about 20 seconds. But the pair will repeat the act every 20 minutes or so – sometimes up to 40 times a day. This will continue for three to seven days straight, with the male and female neglecting to hunt or eat during the entire time.

Tree crickets: “Smooth talker”
Male crickets bite holes in leafs to amplifier their love songs and attract females. Once they mate, however, male sperm packets don’t fit inside the females’ bodies so a portion hangs out. The ever-ravenous females try to eat the packet before fertilization can occur. To distract her, the male sings and secretes a tasty goo from his back, feeding her until the eggs are fertilized.

9) Day Octopus: “Keep Your Distance”
Female day octopi are known to eat their partners after mating, so the males keep their distance. When a male finds a female, he extends one arm and waves. If she responds, he uses his arm to place a sperm packet under the female’s body covering. The octopi stay at an arm’s length – appearing as though they are holding hands.

10) Little Brown Bats: “Waiting for the Right Time”
Because these bats mate in the autumn — but hibernate during winter – females store sperm for seven months to delay pregnancy until springtime. While bats normally hang upside down, females stand upright to give birth and catch their babies in a membrane between their legs. Newborns cling to their mothers even during nighttime flights as they search for food.

We’ve had several reliable reports of crocus in January. Several people have noted daffodils emerging. On Monday, the high of 67 tied a 122 year old record for the National Weather Service at St. Louis. Last night, leaving the Traveler office in short sleeves, I heard spring peepers calling, apparently coaxed from their muddy digs by several days of unseasonable temperatures.

Naturally, this brings up all sorts of speculation on global warming, or as it’s now known, climate change. Coming out in favor of climate change in Missouri, well-known for our fickle changing weather, isn’t a big stretch.

Jo has often thought that local winters have grown milder over her lifetime (notwithstanding the jokes about uphill both ways to the school bus stop in snow in July that people of middle years are famous for telling their children.) She hasn’t moved much north or south since she was a kid. Now we have proof, and it will be printed on the backs of the seed packets hitting the discount and farm supply stores in a few weeks.

The United States Dept. of Agriculture issued a revised plant hardiness zone chart last week.

USDA plant hardiness chart

If you’ve ever read the back of a seed packet, you’ve seen a simplified version based on the USDA zones to determine when the threat of frost is gone to plant seeds that cannot tolerate frost.

The National Arbor Day Foundation hosts an animated version, showing the northward creep of plant zones from 1990 to 2006. The 2012 map, based on data from 1976 to 2006, nudges that movement even further north.

The closeup map of Missouri shows that we cover 5 zones from 7b in the Bootheel (with an average winter extreme temperature of 5-10 degrees Fahrenheit), to zone 5b with an expected extreme temperature of -10 to -15 over a given winter.

USDA graphic

So what does this mean? Does it reflect better (and more data) or does it mean climate change really exists and annual temperatures are trending higher? The USDA is making no claims except what the numbers say.

What have you seen the last week or two? And what do you think? Please share what you’ve seen with us and your fellow Traveler readers.

ONLINE OPTIONS
In addition to the traditional online format, allowing you to search for listings by location

Click this cover image to access the electronic replica version of Mo-Go.

The electronic replica version works just like Traveler’s e-Edition with clickable indexes to take you quickly to different sections and clickable email and web links on the listings. We think you’ll find it very convenient to use. It’s free and available 24/7 to help you plan your Missouri outdoor adventures.

PRINT DISTRIBUTION

We are in the early stages of distributing 40,000 printed Mo-Go booklets statewide. Over the next two months, we’ll have Mo-Gos available at convenient pick-up points all over Missouri.

The booklet will be inserted in all copies of the March issue of Traveler and will also be available at the KGMO Great Outdoors Sports Show in Cape Girardeau Feb. 24-25-26. That event will be held at the Show-Me Center.

Places where you can pick up a print Mo-Go so far include the following:

Niangua River Oasis, Lebanon
Country Inn, Mark Twain Lake
Holiday Hideaway, Branson
Reel & Trigger Resort, Warsaw
Boiling Spring Campground, Dixon
T. Hargrove, St. Louis
Feathercraft, St. Louis
Paul’s Bait & Tackle, St. Louis
Missouri Division of Tourism, Truman Building, Jefferson City
Young’s Restaurant, Valley Park
Eureka Welcome Center, Eureka
Onondaga State Park, Leasburg
Missouri Welcome Center, Interstate 35, Eagleville
Missouri Welcome Center, I-70, Blue Springs
Missouri Welcome Center, U.S. 61, Hannibal
Hannibal Convention & Visitors Bureau, Hannibal
Ft. Davidson Cafe, Pilot Knob
Ft. Davidson Motel, Pilot Knob
Ryno’s Pub, Pizzeria & Grill, Ironton
Lenny’s, Lesterville
Bearcat’s Getaway, Lesterville
Don’s Place, Ellington
Shady Lane Motel & Cabins, Eminence
Twin Pines Conservation Education Center, Winona
Stray Dog BBQ, Van Buren
The Landing, Van Buren
Dazey’s, Van Buren
Ozark National Scenic Riverways Visitor Center, Van Buren
Missouri Department of Conservation, Van Buren
Dazey’s, Van Buren
Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce, Poplar Bluff
Camelot RV Park, Poplar Bluff
Lake Road Junction Convenience Store, Hwy. T & U.S. 60, east of Poplar Bluff
Slabber Dave’s Sporting Goods, Wappapello
Millie’s, Wappapello

SPECIAL NO-STRINGS FREE OFFER: The print version of Mo-Go will be inserted in the March issue of River Hills Traveler. If you are not a subscriber, you can request this issue be sent to you free simply by emailing your request to jschaper@rhtrav.com. You’ll be put on our mailing list for the March, April and May issues. You’ll get one renewal notice in May offering you two bonus months if you continue as a paid subscriber at $19 for one year or $33 for two years. If you pay, the paper continues. If you don’t, it stops. We promise no phone calls, no bills you can’t stop, no hassle. We just want you to take a free, three-month look at Traveler.

This one is something special, folks, and that’s not hype. We’re kicking off our 40th Anniversary year with some exclusive photos and coverage of the mountain lion trapped near Centerville in Reynolds County on January 5. Writer Doug Smith interviewed the trapper, and came up with some positively scary photos

Photo by Paula Barton

Our e-Edition takes things two steps further: first a music video called “The Panther Song” featuring images of cougars, mountain lions, whatever you all call them including all the Missouri 2011 sightings where an animal was photographed, along with a few recent cats from Iowa and Arkansas. If anyone has any Illinois Ozarks lion photos, please send them to us! ( Jo couldn’t find any online).

Secondly, in the e-Edition, there is a short segment of the Centerville cat as it woke from sedation, courtesy of the Missouri Dept. of Conservation. This video is an “Easter Egg” — we’re not going to tell you where the link is…you’ll have to find it for yourself.
First person to email Jo with the correct location will win your choice of Nature’s Wrath or a Traveler 2012 pocket planner. Subscribers can get to the e-Edition via http://www.rhetraveler.com for free; If you want to play and you’re not a subscriber, you can get access for 99 cents for three days to look at this month’s issue.

We’ll announce the winner here and on Facebook.

And we have all our usual great Traveler features on fishing, fly tying, a feature on a boat manufacturer, rabbit hunting, living on a towboat 40 years ago, local history, recipes, geology and more.

Give Traveler a try, find the big cat video, and read our great articles…you will be glad you did.

“The park staff have completed their review of the 318 page document and have provided comments. These remarks have been compiled and submitted to the Denver Service Center planning team,” says Acting Superintendent Black.

Two Rivers: Jacks Fork on left, Current River on right. Jo Schaper photo.

Besides the park staff reviewing the draft, the National Park Service’s Denver Service Center and the Midwest Regional Office in Omaha, Nebraska have also reviewed the draft document and provided their input.

Comments from all enities will be incorporated into the draft which will be sent to the National Park Service leadership in Washington D. C. for their review. Once this review is completed, the draft General Management Plan will be released for public review and comment. Ozark National Scenic Riverways and the planning team anticipate the public release for review and comment to occur Spring 2012.

The park will inform the public when the review and comment period will occur. We encourage and welcome your input on the draft General Management Plan.

A couple weeks ago life took him to Big Lake State Park. If you usually stay on the eastern or southern part of the state, Big Lake is near the town of Big Lake, which means it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, about halfway between Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge and the Missouri River north of St. Joseph. It was flooded much of last year, and tragically made the news recently as the location where Missouri state highway patrolman Fred Guthrie (and his patrol dog) met their deaths while on patrol.

While there, Eugene took two photos which he passed along to me. The first needs no explanation. Or does it? You decide.

The smudge on the face of the second sign, isn’t due to dust storms from Kansas, but the waterline of the Missouri River for most of last summer into early fall. Comparing it to what is dry now is a sober reminder of the power of the Big Muddy.