Blethen Maine News Service

OAKLAND - State biologists on Tuesday began investigating the second reported mountain lion sighting in the area in a week.

Mountain lions, also referred to as "cougars," "catamounts," "pumas" and "panthers," disappeared from Maine in the 1800s, victims of indiscriminate hunting and trapping, habitat changes, and declining deer, moose and caribou populations, according to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The cats are listed on the federal endangered species list.

The last documented mountain lion seen in the wild in Maine was killed in 1938, but reports of sightings still surface on occasion, according to department spokesman Mark Latti.

"But in my eight years, it's always come back as something different than a mountain lion," Latti said.

Adult male mountain lions weigh 175-200 pounds and are about 8 feet long from nose to tail. Adult females weigh about 75-175 pounds and average about 6 feet in length.

On Tuesday, Oakland resident Kelvin Higgins provided a sample of fur and possibly some skin to state biologists. He said a big cat shed the fur while grooming itself on a snowy rock in his wooded backyard in April.

"I'm not 100 percent sure it was a mountain lion, but it was a big cat, believe me," Higgins said.

Higgins' lawn extends a little more than 30 yards from his back porch, from which he said he spotted the cat.

"He was just down there preening," he said. When the cat saw him on the porch, it "just stood up and stretched really casually" before loping off.

Higgins said the cat's body and tail each were about 4 feet long, and he estimated its weight at around 100 pounds.

Higgins later collected a pinch of fur from the rock, but didn't turn it in until reading a news story last week about a possible sighting in Sidney.

In that incident, an unnamed resident provided a grainy photo of what appeared to be a large cat to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Latti said the photo was inconclusive.

The Oakland sighting is different, according to state biologist Keel Kemper, who said the sample appears to include both hair and flesh, and is large enough for DNA testing.

"This does not look like deer hair, to be honest with you," Kemper said.