The first mountain lion of the 2008 season has been shot near Grassy Butte.

Rick Mittleider of Tappen and his party of two other hunters took the cat Wednesday morning near Grassy Butte.

Mittleider said he and two others, Louie Hafele and Donny Kramlich, were using a predator call in a rugged and remote area of the Breaks when the mountain lion responded to the call about 7 o'clock in the morning.

"It was our second stand of the day," Mittleider said,"and we had used three or four calls … so I'm not really sure which one she responded to."

He said the lion was a 107-pound female, which he plans to have prepared in a full-body mount by his son-in-law, who owns Faul Taxidermy in Tappen.

Mittleider said he's an avid coyote hunter and has been hunting mountain lions since the state first opened a regular season.

It was his first hunt this season, he said.

He said to his knowledge, it's the first mountain lion taken by calling:"I realize calling mountain lions is like finding a needle in a haystack," he said.

"We were very fortunate … the good Lord put us in the right place at the right time and I was lucky enough to be the one to pull the trigger."

He said he took the cat with a .224 Clark at about 200 yards.

The lion was taken in zone 1, which roughly covers the area of the Badlands south of Williston and encompasses McKenzie, Dunn, Billings, Golden Valley, Slope and Bowman counties.

Zone 2 includes the remainder of the state.

The quota for zone 1 is eight lions and will close immediately once it is reached.