ARE THERE MOUNTAIN LIONS IN PA?

[Rick Thorne]

" I BELEAVE " My wife almost hit one with her car in Lycoming County just south of the Rt 118 Rt 42 intersection. Her and her mother both swear that's what it was. I said it was most likely a small deer or coyote. Her and her mothers answer was " with short hair and a tail this long " ! There hands were both as far apart as they could go. They both know what a coyote and deer look like.

[pirateron]

I believe so! I live near the the Chestnut Ridge and some neighbors up the ridge have claimed to see them in their yards...one witness was the former police chief!

If I ever see one, you'll have proof! LOL

Well that means it MUST be true. No LEO would EVER embellish a story.

[glockman22]

i don't know something is telling me that everyone that says they have seen one is not crazy..i think they might be here..i hear they are extremely illusive creatures.

[pirateron]

yeah, but they aren't finding supposedly extinct animals the size of mountain lions in areas as populated as PA (ETA: i grew up in northcentral PA, so, no, i don't think the entire state is as populated as pittsburgh ...but it is still pretty heavily populated and even the forests in north central PA get, relatively speaking, a lot of human traffic and study).

i doubt it is possible to prove an animal is extinct...or that there is no population of a certain animal in a certain area.

so, you apply the scientific method. you start out assuming the null hypothesis (which is that there are no wild mountain lions in PA) and look for evidence to reject it.

for me, all the eyewitness sightings in the world won't provide that evidence. (no offense to those eyewitnesses, but eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable and, from a purely objective standpoint, just doesn't pass scientific scrutiny).

personally, i need verifiable proof...tracks...hair (DNA tested)...scat (DNA tested)...a dead one...a trapped one...anything. such evidence would at least indicate there is, if nothing else, a single escaped or released mountain lion roaming around.

however, no such evidence has been produced since the late 1800s. imho, that is a pretty strong reason to not reject the null hypothesis. if there were actually a population of wild mountain lions roaming around, there would very likely be such evidence. consider bobcats for a moment. they are rarely seen as well. however, there is a lot of verifiable evidence of the existence of a wild bobcat population in PA.

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound??

If a mountain lion lives in the woods and leaves NO evidence as such, does he still exist??

[LittleRedToyota]

If a mountain lion lives in the woods and leaves NO evidence as such, does he still exist??

sure, but there is still no logical reason to believe that he exists.

(and while the a single mountain lion living in the woods and leaving no evidence is plausible...the probability of an actual population of wild mountain lions living in the woods and leaving no evidence is extraordinarily small.

further, if there is truely a single wild mountain lion--as opposed to an escaped/released one--out there, then there must be a population...unless that single mountain lion is well over 100 years old. )

[larrymeyer]

Yes there are also in NY I live on the border and have seen at least two one guy almost crashed his car trying to get a camera from the glove compartment never got the picture. PA Game Commission will tell you there are no mountain lions in Pa have no idea why they insist on that story

[LittleRedToyota]

no idea why they insist on that story

prolly because they cannot find any scientifically valid evidence of such existence (and have not been able to since the late 1800s).

[Grizz2720]

Our Dept of Natural Resources has denied there were any mountains lions in Wisconsin for years. Kept telling people they were seeing bobcats. Well a couple a years ago a couple of Hunters set up some trail cameras and got photos of them. Then this summer the DNR got egg on its face when a mountain Lion was killed in a Chicago suburb and DNA showed it came from the Wisconsin population. LOL
The reason they used to deny the existence of Mountain Lions was that they did not want any one hurt trying to hunt one. It was ok for the Lions to hunt us though.

Grizz

[dtree25]

" I BELEAVE " My wife almost hit one with her car in Lycoming County just south of the Rt 118 Rt 42 intersection. Her and her mother both swear that's what it was. I said it was most likely a small deer or coyote. Her and her mothers answer was " with short hair and a tail this long " ! There hands were both as far apart as they could go. They both know what a coyote and deer look like.

I to know what one looks like and I will promise that if one crosses my path while I have a rifle in my hands you will have your proof. And the PA game commision will learn about it when they see it on the news because I will contact every news agency I can think of just so they can't cover it up.

[RocketFoot]

I've actually heard stories that the game commission was trying to reintroduce the mountain lions to PA (particularly in the Ligonier area and north) but didn't want people to get scared and go out looking (and killing) them...but rumors are a dime a dozen.