A mountain lion killed late Monday in central Missouri is more proof the big cats are roaming the state, experts said Tuesday.

"It could be a handful or it could be several dozen," said Dave Hamilton, a wildlife biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation in Jefferson City.

The cougar was killed about 11 p.m. Monday on U.S. 54, about one mile south of Fulton.

It was the second cougar killed in Missouri in less than a year. The other one was hit by a car in October at Interstate 35 and Parvin Road in Kansas City, North.

At least seven free-roaming cougars have been confirmed in the state since 1994.

Late Monday, a woman called the Callaway County Sheriff's Department to report that she had hit a dog and it might still be alive. A Missouri Highway Patrol trooper who investigated the call found a dead cougar and turned it over to the conservation agency.

The male cat had no tattoos or any other indications that it had been captive, Hamilton said. The animal weighed a lean 105 pounds and was thought to be between 2 and 3 years old. Officials plan to do a necropsy today and send materials to a lab for DNA testing.

"It appears to be wild, or at least to be living in the wild," he said.

The cougar's origins were uncertain.

Hamilton said confirmed cougar sightings are increasing in Missouri and in neighboring states such as Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa.

Wildlife biologists think the cats, which establish and protect territories from other cougars, have filled all available habitat in the Rocky Mountain states. Young males are roaming east in search of new haunts, Hamilton said.

"South Dakota 10 years ago rarely had cougars, and now they're common and abundant," he said.

The cats likely follow major streams such as the Missouri River eastward.

Biologists are uncertain whether the cats are abundant enough to establish breeding populations, Hamilton said.

"It will happen sooner or later," he said. "It's just a matter of time. Or maybe it's happening now and we just haven't documented it yet."

Mountain lions are secretive, night-prowling animals that feed primarily on deer. They usually fear humans and pose little threat to people, Hamilton said. But if attacked, a person should aggressively fight back.

Kansas has not had a confirmed cougar case since 1904, said Matt Peek, a furbearer biologist for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

But officials have investigated numerous reports, Peek said. A plaster cast of a mountain lion footprint was made near Lawrence in the 1990s. No bodies, excrement or confirmed photos have turned up.

Peek said wandering cougars may be passing through.

"I suspect someday we will have a carcass," Peek said, "and more than likely it will be a transient animal."