PA Mountain lions?

[osprey]

Has anyone on here ever seen one or had someone you know claim to have seen one? A friend of mine and myself were driving in a car and on a skyline probably 300 yds at first i thought it was a horse and then at the same time we both said "It looks like a cat" i do believe it was. Anyone else?

 

[jaybo41]

I've seen it often debated but have never personally seen one. I have seen what I believe to be cat tracks, but can't say for sure those tracks belonged to a lion. I'm almost those were caused by a cat since there was only a pair of staggered tracks but unsure of what kind it would have been. Probably a bobcat is my guess.

Can you get back there and look for tracks and take a camera?

 

[afishinado]

!!!

 

[Fishidiot]

This issue is a constant favorite on the internet (including this site). I remain a skeptic and do not believe the PA cougar stories.

Afish,
Nice photo but the lion is tracking a mule deer which, of course, we don't have here in PA.
BTW: the Game Commission did attempt to release some mulies in PA early in the 20th century when elk were brought from out West. The elk did okay, I think the mulies lasted only a few months. Guess they just weren't suited to PA landscape.

 

[troutbert]

Let's conserve the PA mountain lions. Where do I join?

 

[pcray1231]

I've never personally seen one. Seen lots of bobcat tracks but nothing I thought was a lion. I'm personally a skeptic, I think occasionally someone releases a pet and they may live a few years and lead to a rash of legitimate sightings, and perhaps at some point a pair found each other and had cubs. But I don't believe we have a naturally reproducing, self-sustaining, population.

I dated a girl once who's mother claimed to see one pass through the backyard. The long tail is the feature she said stood out the most, so it wasn't a bobcat. There was snow on the ground. When the husband came home he tried to track it, but never caught up with it. He said he called the game commission but they never showed up. Showed me a picture of one of the tracks, it looked like a big cat track, but its hard to verify from a picture.

My wife's grandfather also claimed to see one cross the road in front of him 20 some years ago, along the Wykoff Run Road in NC PA. I'd say he's a trustworthy guy and he knows his animals, but thats about the extent of it.

 

[Maurice]

Fishidiot wrote:
=
BTW: the Game Commission did attempt to release some mulies in PA early in the 20th century when elk were brought from out West. The elk did okay, I think the mulies lasted only a few months. Guess they just weren't suited to PA landscape.

Thats cuz the Pumas ett them. :-D

 

[Brownout]

All I know is, when I look at Google maps and switch it to satellite, there is a lot of green in the north western part of the state. With trails cameras, I would think that if they were out there in significant numbers, someone may have snapped an image. However, these cameras are usually not deep in the woods. So...who knows....maybe a few pairs are out there.

 

[pcray1231]

Define "deep in the woods". Dirt roads crisscross the forest, and where you can't drive, gated logging roads provide easy bike or foot access to basically every hillside. Those forests have plenty of people, from hunters, fishermen, and hikers. With the mature forest, trails are less well defined, and trail cameras are probably less popular than they are in thicker country. But people do hunt and spend time way back in. While perhaps not at night, you'd think with snow on the ground you'd see the tracks. And I happen to know there's a few trail cameras way back in.

 

[RLeeP]

>>Let's conserve the PA mountain lions. Where do I join?>>

I think they share an office with The Pennsylvania Society to Preserve our Native Unicorn. It's located in Corydon, PA which unfortunately, has been at the bottom of the Allegheny Reservoir since 1965. I think this is one of the reasons they don't have a web site. It isn't that they haven't tried to put one up. It's just that every time they do, somebody gets electrocuted...

 

[FarmerDave]

A friend who used to own and operate a log truck swears he saw a black panther cross his path in the wee hours of the morning in a very remote area near Pitthole. They where doing a salvage cut. This was probably at least 20 years ago. I think they were cleaning up some fo the blowdown from the tornadoes in 85 or 86.

The fact that he claimed it was black made it pretty much unbelievable to me, but this guy grew up in the woods. I'd be more proned to believe him if it wasn't black.

Then the last couple years I've heard of several sightings of a black panther not far from there. not saying exactly where, but it was hear a couple huge tracts of forest (thousands of acres), opposite side of the Allegheny though. I still don't buy it, because I've heard these recent ones all second hand, and most of the camps in that area are owned by mupears and FOBs. What do they know.

lots of bear in that area though.

If it is true, it would have to be an escaped pet.

 

[pcray1231]

Yeah, a lot of the sightings are of black panthers. I didn't mention it but my wife's grandfather's supposed sighting was black.

A black phase mountain lion has never been recorded, even in captivity or in the west. There are black phases of jaguars and leapords. Those would obviously have to be released pets. The other alternative explanation is that they are mistaken black bears, or that a darker individual appears black at night.

 

[osprey]

I'm sure we saw what we saw............origins are something i can't explain , but try this one out , do you think ever that perhaps some wealthy landowner , with alot of acerage decided he wanted to hunt something a little different or perhaps a landowner that offered a "special" hunt to aquaitainces for profit?

 

[bikerfish]

a couple years ago there was a flyer tacked on the wall outside the waterville general store/flyshop, it told of the supposed sightings of mountain lions in the area and what to do if one is encountered. can't remember word for word, but it went something like this: if you see a mountain lion, tell it in a strong voice that it is unwelcome here and to move along, if it lowers it's ears and growls, shoot it" I laughed out loud while reading that!!! guess we should start carrying side arms while fishing, just in case!!

 

[osprey]

If i saw one up close i don't know if i could bring myself to shoot it unless it was it or me i guess , i think a few shots in the air would do the trick , i know that last summer a huge bear , probably 400 , came crashing accross the stream above me when he got up on the hill a little he stopped , looked right at me , made a noise grunt and took a few steps in my direction , i yelled and started for the truck which was right there and he took off like a bottle rocket. If he was coming at you that fast you wouldn't even have time to pass gas. I've seen lots of bears while deer hunting and having the rifle and not the fly rod makes it a whole different experience.

 

[Chaz]

While I'm a skeptic, I've also heard both first hand and second hand stories of Lions. I don't carry any firearmsin the woods and I do a lot of back country fishing and rarely even see a deer or bear, though there are plenty of them out there. Where I see lots of deer are along roads, same with bear. I wouldn't expect to see a lion near a road but some of the stories I've heard are of lions crossing roads.
Sooner or later we'll know for sure, the most recent account I heard was near our camp, a fireman saw a lion pulling a dead deer across a road near our camp. He called on his radio to the station and the whole fire company got out to the place and found the partially eaten deer but not much else.

 

[spectorfly]

Question is, if they exist, are they of a heritage strain?

 

[pcray1231]

Spectorfly,

I know you're joking, but that is indeed a good question. Eastern, western, or southern ancestry?

Eastern cougars are thought extinct, but a remnant population has always been a legend, and its possible (even probable) that eastern cougars remain in parts of Canada.

The western lions have been moving steadily eastward for some time, they're now verified in Wisconsin, Iowa, and places like that. Not much farther and they'd hit the Appalachians, which is better habitat for them, and they'd spread quickly at that point. Perhaps they already have, and this is the source of the sightings?

And of course there's a known population in Florida. They have many of them tagged, and at least one ventured up to Georgia for a while before returning. Again, thats on the footsteps of the Appalachian chain.

 

[tomgamber]

I know guys who claim to have seen them out west. Most didn't get a really good look. Most just saw it for a second or two as it was high tailing it. Tan flash just like a big deer without making any noise. A few said they had seen them from a distance but they said that was close enough for them.

 

[JackM]

I'm probably going to see a cougar in a week or two right here in Washington County-- John Cougar Mallencamp is opening for Bob Dylan at the Wild Things/Consol Park July 13.