The state's only radio-collared mountain lion is traveling within a 15-square-mile area of where it was released, a Wednesday check showed.

The 1½-year-old, 108-pound male lion was located about five miles from his capture point, a North Dakota Game and Fish Department researcher found during a flyover.

"In general, it has moved east and now north," Dorothy Fecske, NDGFD furbearer biologist, said Thursday.

What's unknown is whether the cougar has found a place it likes or is merely resting up after it was caught in a leg-hold trap, tranquilized, fitted with a radio collar and released about 25 miles north of Medora more than a month ago.

"It's traveling over a decent bit of country, but it's too soon to say much of anything," Fecske said. "We need some time before we get a better idea of what the cat is doing."

She did collect a hair sample for DNA testing when the cat was drugged. That sample, along with 13 others from North Dakota mountain lions, is at the Wildlife Ecology Research Unit's wildlife genetics laboratory in Missoula, Mont., along with DNA samples from lions killed in South Dakota.

Researchers in both states hope to learn if North Dakota's cats primarily are dispersing from South Dakota's Black Hills.

Fecske also is finishing up preparation for a mountain lion tracking survey that's planned for "the first good snow after the new year." She has seven routes planned in the north, central and southern regions of the Badlands with good mountain lion habitat. Each route will cover approximately 60 miles, and researchers will search the routes for fresh mountain lion tracks and record those locations.

The track survey, like fitting the cougar with a radio collar, will help researchers document the distribution of mountain lions in the Badlands.

"We are planning on running it once this year. We'll see what kind of information we get and go from there," Fecske said.

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