A mountain lion wearing a radio collar in the North Dakota Badlands was traveling incognito for weeks after the collar malfunctioned, the state's wildlife division chief says.

"We lost him for about six weeks," said Randy Kreil, the wildlife division chief of the Game and Fish Department. Last week, the big cat was found alive and well through a weak backup collar, Kreil said.

In April, the cougar was tranquilized and given a high-tech Global Positioning System collar. Officials could check on his whereabouts three times a day from as far as 20 miles away.

"The GPS collar was defective, which was really frustrating for us," Kreil said. "We went through all that work to track him down last winter and tranquilize him. We were getting three reports a day, and then it quit."

Kreil said wildlife officials are waiting for the right time to replace the collar. The weather has been too hot to try to track the cougar down recently, he said. To get a signal from the backup collar requires being within a mile, he said.

The male cougar, believed to be about 4½ years old, was caught in a foothold trap in December 2006 north of Medora. He is being monitored to provide information to biologists on mountain lion habits and habitat.

Kreil said his division has collars "lined up" to monitor other mountain lions if it gets a chance.

This year's mountain lion hunting season is under way. Kreil said Friday he had no reports of any killed so far.

"We're getting into the time of year where there's going to be tens of thousands of people hunting," he said.

- Associated Press