Chicago cougar stored at Field Museum

CHICAGO (AP) - The remains of a 150-pound cougar shot and killed more than a year ago on Chicago’s North Side are being stored at the Field Museum.

The animal isn’t on public display, but scientists will have access to it.

Bruce Patterson, the museum’s curator of mammals, says the necropsy was invasive and it would take an “amazingly skilled taxidermist” to make it presentable for display.

Scientists for the Cook County Animal and Rabies Control agency removed the animal’s organs, teeth and brain to determine its age and origin.

Confirmed cougar sightings are rare in Illinois.

The Field’s mammal collection dates to the late 1890s. Nearly a thousand scientists each year request to either visit the mammal collection or have portions shipped to them.