The 100-pound male, estimated to be 1 to 2 years old, was shot on the north side of town.

It was the first confirmed mountain lion sighting in Nebraska since one in Banner County, just south of Scottsbluff, last Oct. 31.

It also was the sixth confirmed sighting in the Scottsbluff area in the last 12 years.

Scottsbluff is located just north of ideal mountain lion habitat in the Wildcat Hills.According to the Commission-approved Mountain Lion Response Plan, any mountain lion found within city limits of any municipality will be lethally removed when it can be done safely.

The cat was first observed about two hours before it was shot.

Conservation officers, biologists and local law enforcement officials were unsuccessful in an attempt to sedate the cat with a dart so it could be removed and euthanized.

While the dart failed to fully sedate the cat, it got it to move to an area where the proper background allowed it to be safely shot.

The mountain lion is native to Nebraska. They were extirpated by the end of the 19th century. Despite annual reports since the 1950s, no confirmed sighting was made in the state until the 1990s. In 1991, a deer was found killed by a mountain lion and shortly after an adult mountain lion was shot by a hunter near Harrison, in Sioux County.

For more information on mountain lions in Nebraska, go to the Commission's web site at www.OutdoorNebraska.org, click on Wildlife, then Wildlife Species.