State investigators are searching for suspects after the body of an illegally poached mountain lion was found abandoned in a Colorado canyon last week, according to wildlife officials.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife rangers responded to Taylor Canyon in Gunnison City Mountain Park on Friday after the mountain lion’s carcass was discovered near a group of campsites, according to a news release from the agency.

The mountain lion, which had been shot in the chest and left in the bushes, was previously part of the agency’s mountain lion density study in Gunnison Basin, wildlife officials said in the release.

During that study, researchers captured, marked, collared and monitored dozens of mountain lions across western Colorado, according to the agency. Nearly 100 animals were collared betw

See Full Page