A mountain lion found dead in a farmer's field Tuesday southeast of Mott Tuesday was a young male that probably was dispersing.

"It's of that age when it's looking for a place to fit in," Greg Link, assistant wildlife chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department said Wednesday morning as he looked on during a preliminary examination the carcass. "It just as easily could have come from the Black Hills (in South Dakota) as the Badlands."

The 1- to 2 1/2-year old cat probably was hit by a vehicle, said Erika Butler, NDGFD wildlife veterinarian, who did the preliminary analysis Wednesday morning.

"Its claws were broken when it dug them into the ground right before impact," she said, adding that the lion was not far from a gravel road.

X-rays done later Wednesday supported her hypothesis. The cat's rear left paw was broken, as were all of the ligaments in that leg. And there were injuries on its head.

The cat's carcass was in the field too long for internal organs to offer much information.

"Whether there were internal injuries, we don't know," she said. "Definitely something was up with the head."

There was a puncture wound on its chest, but the X-rays showed "no steel or lead in there" that would indicate it had been shot, Butler said.

The carcass is stored in one of the freezers at the NDGFD laboratory "to kill the maggots" before more analysis, Butler said.

Even if the mountain lion had been killed by a hunter, it would not count against the five-lion quota because the cat was in zone 2, which has no quota, Link said. Only cats harvested in zone 1 - what's considered ideal lion habitat in the Badlands - have a quota.

"Also this year we're not counting road kills or cats taken out for depredation" in the zone 1 quota, Link added. A bowhunter harvested the first cat to count in the quota near Grassy Butte over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The mountain lion probably died a week or more ago after dragging itself into the field where the landowner discovered the carcass while he was spraying, Link said as he watched an inquisitive turkey vulture circle the area.

"He saw it a couple of days ago but thought it was a road-killed deer," Link said of the lion carcass.

The landowner took a closer look Tuesday and called NDGFD's enforcement division to report the dead lion. A game warden picked it up and took the carcass to Bismarck.

The cat measured 77 inches and weighed 84 pounds, based on data compiled by Sarah Neigum and Colin Penner, who helped Butler handle the cat.

"It may have lost weight. Normally a male in that age range weighs 90 to 100 pounds," Link said.

The lion was 20 to 40 yards from the road.

"He went to cover in the long grass, looking for a place to die, I guess," Butler said.

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 701-250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)