S. Dakota mountain lion killed in Connecticut car crash
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A mountain lion killed on a Connecticut highway last month apparently had walked halfway across the country from South Dakota.
Connecticut environmental officials said Tuesday the roughly 2,000-mile journey was one of the longest ever recorded for a land mammal.
They said the animal originated in the Black Hills region of South Dakota and was tracked by DNA from its hair and droppings as it passed through Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2009 and 2010.
It was the first confirmed wild mountain lion in Connecticut in more than 100 years.
The lean, 140-pound male was killed by a car in the New Haven suburb of Milford on June 11. Tests determined the cat was likely the same one that had been seen earlier in Greenwich, about 30 miles from New York City.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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