Curiosity has gotten the better of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials after a mountain lion was killed this week on State Highway 337 north of Mineral Wells.

See, here's the thing: Mountain lions aren't usually found in these parts, as WFAA-TV (Channel 8) reported.

"I've seen a lot of country that no one has ever seen, but I've never seen a mountain lion," said Palo Pinto County game warden Matt Waggoner, who was beckoned to retrieve the big feline.

The cat was struck while crossing the road by a local high school student driving home from basketball practice.

Waggoner said it was a mature male weighing about 200 pounds, "just massive," he told the news station.

Confirmed sightings are typically confined to west and southwestern parts of the state, along the Mexican border. (Laurie Joseph/staff artist / The Dallas Morning News)

Confirmed mountain lion sightings typically occur in far West Texas or in southwestern Texas along the Mexico border, and a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist said it's been at least 15 years since a mountain lion has been captured or killed in Palo Pinto County.

So what the heck was it doing here? Department biologists will now turn to science to figure that out, mining the contents of its belly to see what it was munching on in its last days and studying its hair and tongue to find out where it came from — and whether it might be linked to other Texas populations.