CHARITON (AP) - A young male mountain lion was shot in Wayne County in southern Iowa over the weekend, the Department of Natural Resources reported Tuesday.

"Someone saw the lion eating on a deer carcass and called a friend," said Todd Gosselink, DNR wildlife biologist. "The friends showed up with their coon hounds and flushed the cat from a culvert, chased it for about three-quarters of a mile before it climbed a large cottonwood tree."

That was when Jason Klaiber of Lineville shot it with his 30-06 rifle.

The lion was found south of Confidence on the Chariton River Sunday.

The lion was about 6 .5 feet long and all indications are it was wild.

"It was a good sized male," Gosselink said. "I estimate it weighed 80 to 100 pounds and was probably 1.5 to 2 years old," Gosselink said.

That makes the third young male lion killed in Iowa.

Ron Andrews, the state furbearer biologist for the DNR, said there must be a general increase in the movements of these animals into the state, but how many, he can't say. There have been recent reports of a lion killed on the interstate north of Kansas City, Mo., one was captured in the Omaha, Neb., area and one was killed near Ireton in northwest Iowa.

The DNR has six apparently good, solid mountain lion tracks in the state, Andrews said. The tracks were found in Webster County, near Mt. Ayr, near Cherokee, Lyon County, Harrison County and Decatur County.

"Killing mountain lions is currently not illegal, but we certainly don't want to encourage the indiscriminate killing of these animals," Andrews said.