Iowa teen kills sixth mountain lion in state history on a deer hunt near Akron

An Iowa teenager came face-to-face with a mountain lion — and lived to tell the tale.

Jacob Altena, 17, of Rock Rapids was hunting deer Saturday about a half-mile west of Akron, right along the Sioux River. He was walking through the woods at around 5:15 p.m. when he heard something move to his left.

He turned to see the mountain lion just 15 feet away, sitting under some fallen timber.

"It was pretty scary," Altena said. "I was in shock."

Altena said instinct took over, and he pointed his shotgun at the mountain lion.

"It made a jolt toward me, and I instantly pulled the trigger," he said.

The slug hit the mountain lion in the shoulder, and it died soon after. Altena said he plans to mount the 80-pound female.

Altena killed a 12-point buck last year, but he said his encounter with the mountain lion tops that hunt.

"This was the kill of a lifetime," he said.

The mountain lion was not the first to show up in Iowa this year. One was spotted in Linn Grove in early September.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources killed a female mountain lion near an Ida County farm on June 27 after a farmer discovered a calf apparently attacked by a large cat.

The mountain lion killed in Ida County was the fifth cougar killed in Iowa, as reported to the DNR. That makes Altena's kill the sixth.

According to population data from the Iowa DNR, there have been three confirmed mountain lion sightings in Iowa in 2017. That data was published in September.

Mountain lions in Iowa generally come from western South Dakota and Nebraska, which both have natural puma populations. The animals are uncommon in Iowa.

They are not listed as a furbearer and have no protected status in Iowa.