Lincoln, NEB. - This past weekend, a Mountain Lion showed up on a trail camera, on a property in the rural Nebraska Lancaster County town of Bennett, but just how rare is it for that to happen?

News Channel Nebraska spoke with Sam Wilson, who works in the Nebraska Game and Parks Carnivore Program, to find out. 

"It is pretty rare to see Mountain Lions in southeast Nebraska and Lancaster County," Wilson said. "These young dispersing animals can come out of the Rocky Mountains or or the Black Hills or the three breeding areas in Nebraska, the closest being the Niobrara area near valentine, but they would have to walk hundreds of miles."

The three breeding areas for Mountain Lions in Nebraska are the Niobrara near Valentine, the Wildcat Hills in Gering, and the Pine Ridge area near Chadron. While Mountain Lions are secretive, Wilson says most lions that come through areas outside of their breeding ranges are usually detected by way of trail cameras used by deer hunters or surveillance cameras on homes. 

Wilson says most Mountain Lions who stray from their breeding areas are young males, looking for a mate. 

"We've had collared lions from our research project that dispersed and they're often young males who reach sub-adult stage and need to go out and find a territory of their own and the females don't spread out as quickly and the young males keep walking and they don't find females because Mountain Lions were eradicated in most of these eastern states," Wilson said. 

Because of this, Wilson believes the lion near Bennett will likely move on quickly. 

"They just keep moving between 3-20 miles a day, unless they kill a deer, then they'll stay in an area for a few days and eat that, then they're back on their way," Wilson said. "It's likely this animal will keep moving and could be far away in just a few days."

Wilson encourages anyone with Mountain Lion sightings or trail camera photos to contact the nearest Game and Parks office.