Is a Mountain Lion Really Roaming Around Waurika, OK

There’s a TikTok making the rounds claiming to show a mountain lion walking around near Waurika in Southwest Oklahoma.

Is it confirmed? No. Not officially.
Is it impossible? Also no.

@justinboren542 #WaurikaOklahoma ♬ original sound - Keya Monné

That’s kind of where we live with mountain lion sightings in this part of the state.

I did a quick search and couldn’t find any official reports tied directly to Waurika yet. No press release. No wildlife department confirmation. Just a video and a lot of people arguing in the comments. That’s usually how these things start.

What makes it interesting is the location.

Southwest Oklahoma has always been part of the conversation when it comes to mountain lions, even if the state spent years downplaying it. Folks who live out here don’t really treat sightings like some wild myth. Everyone knows someone who’s seen one, or swears they did, or had something cross a road that sure didn’t look like a dog.

I’ve seen one myself, years ago, crossing a county road early one Thanksgiving morning. It wasn’t dramatic. No stalking. No growling. Just a big cat moving from one side to the other, gone in seconds. Just a really good fleeting glimpse.

The state now openly acknowledges that mountain lions pass through Oklahoma, and in recent years, that they’re doing more than passing through. We’ve had confirmed sightings, DNA evidence, and proof of breeding inside state lines. One of the most talked-about confirmed sightings came out of Greer County, around Mangum and Quartz Mountain, not all that far from where this new video is supposedly from.

That matters because mountain lions don’t respect county lines or lake boundaries. They follow food and cover.

Oklahoma Has Both

The idea that mountain lions suddenly “showed up” here has never really held up. They were here long before statehood. What changed was everything around them. As settlers moved in, predators were killed on sight, and deer populations were hammered nearly into nothing. With their primary food source gone, big cats moved on.

Fast forward to now.

Deer were reestablished starting in the 1970s, and hunting participation has declined over time. Even with liberal seasons and culls, deer numbers remain strong across much of the state. More prey supports more predators, or at least allows existing ones to stick around longer.

Another factor is visibility.

Trail cameras are everywhere. Game cameras, security cameras, doorbell cameras, and cell phones. We have more eyes pointed at the woods than at any point in history. That doesn’t mean there are suddenly more mountain lions. It means it’s harder for them to stay invisible.

That’s why videos like this get traction. Not because they’re automatically true, but because they fit a pattern that’s been building for years.

Could the video be fake? Sure.
Could it be an old clip reposted as something new? Absolutely.
Could it actually show a mountain lion moving through the area? That’s also on the table.

Until there’s confirmation, it stays in the “possible, but unverified” category.

What’s no longer really debatable is whether mountain lions belong in the Oklahoma conversation at all. They do. They always have. We’re just finally catching up to that reality with better tools and better data.

If this Waurika sighting turns out to be legit, it won’t be shocking. It’ll just be another data point in a mountain lion story that’s being rewritten across Oklahoma.