A driver in Hot Spring County struck and killed a mountain lion on a state highway Wednesday night, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission confirmed Thursday — only the third confirmed time one of the big cats has been found dead in the wild in the state since 1975.

It’s another bizarre animal incident to top off the last six weeks, which have seen not one but two fatal bear attacks in the Arkansas Ozarks. Bear attacks are very rare generally and almost unheard of in Arkansas; the state’s last known fatal bear attack was in the 1890s, and it’s remarkable for there to have been two within a month of one another.

The Game and Fish Commission said the mountain lion killed on Wednesday was struck by a vehicle on state Highway 84 around 10 p.m. near Exit 91 of Interstate 30. That’s near the

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