Nebraska Game and Parks has confirmed that a mountain lion was killed Sunday morning in Sheridan County after it was spotted in a tree near a chicken coop on a ranch about 4 miles east of Rushville.

Jeff and Melissa Jaggers told the Sheridan County Journal Star that their 10-year-old daughter Mikayla saw the mountain lion around 10 a.m. Sunday and reported it to her father…who shot and killed it after making sure his daughter was safely in the house.

Nebraska Game and Parks officials collected the cougar’s carcass for additional testing … saying it was a 2-year-old male that weighed 105 pounds.

Game and Parks Furbearing and Nongame Mammals Program Manager Sam Wilson says state law allows mountain lions to be killed in specific circumstances … such a posing a direct threat to people or livestock, even if they don’t exhibit threatening behavior.

Wilson also says Game and Parks investigated the incident afterwards and concluded that Jaggers had followed proper procedure…including contacting the agency immediately after killing the cougar.

Wilson says it’s not unusual for young lions…especial males … to become wanderers, pushed out of their original territory by a dominant older male.

Mountain lion sightings have become more common in northwest Nebraska since this summer’s wildfires burned more than 200 square miles of grasslands and trees in the region.