Missouri is closer to established self sustaining populations of mountain lions. So, it would only make sense the occasional male mountain lion will find it's way there. It's far easier to get to Missouri than it is VA, PA, WV or MD from where the western populations of mountain lions are.
I suspect biologists in Missouri got a little sick of going out on BS sightings of mountain lions and down played the small number of legit sightings. It came back to bite them in the butt in the credibility factor. Missouri still most likely doesn't have a self sustaining reproducing population of mountain lions. Maybe in 20, 30 or 50 years it will. It takes far more time for females to spread into a new area than it does for males...
See:
http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/wildli...in-lion-reportsWhen you start seeing a decent number of females in the mix, you know you have a reproducing population.
I see the same thing but on a smaller scale with black bears. 20 years ago, we rarely saw black bear sign on our land in PA. Maybe once every couple years we'd see a pile of bear poop. My best guess, it was a young male dispersing to a new area. As black bears got more common in their core range, more and more female bears were born and they dispersed but in much smaller distances. Instead of 15 to 50+ miles, they generally only disperse one third to one half a mile. Females don't get their heads bashed in by dominant males like young males do. If you are constantly getting whooped, you may decide to walk a long ways to find an area not chock full of large male bears already. This small dispersion area for females in a 5 year period may lead to only a couple extra square miles of new reproducing bear territory. However, over a few decades, this can really increase the range of a reproducing bear populations is found. We now have multiple female bears with cubs each year.
The same is true for mountain lions that are dispersing from Montana, Colorado or the Dakotas. As time goes on, if those populations there continue to grow the females will slowly expand out as well. It's just those pesky juvenile males who are sick of getting their heads beat in by dominant males in established areas. They set off for new areas and sometimes they travel a lot of miles. It's these males that are being seen in Missouri. In that one fluke, a male that traveled from the Dakotas to Wisconsin and then all the way to Connecticut.
