ARE THERE MOUNTAIN LIONS IN PA?

[The Drew]

I don't think there is really a question if there are cougars in PA, rather I think the question should be what the hell are all the large black cats that are seen in the northeast?

I too have had a cougar sighting, saw one cross in front of me while I was driving south on 147 one night a few years ago. The tail, stubby head, and the way it moved sealed the deal... It was also the right color for a cougar... sandy gray...

[Swarner793]

what the hell are all the large black cats that are seen in the northeast?

If I recall from the article, the one Biologist that was interviewed stated that it was a phase or cycle that the females go through. The pelts grew really dark, almost black panther in appearance.

I really must get on my Father to find that article.

Be safe.

Scott

[WhiteFeather]

I would have to side with any cougars in PA are released or escape animals, yet the coyotes got back into PA “somehow” so who knows IF cougars could have migrated back into PA by themselves?

Other reintroduced species like Fishers have migrated many hundred of miles from their original release points and gotten in PA “wild areas”.

As far a a species that know knew if it existed here is an example of something no one had viewed in over 50 years.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/0...a-unicorn.html

Africa's 'Unicorn' Caught on Camera


Candid Camera | Watch Animal Videos Sept. 11, 2008 -- The okapi, an African animal so elusive that it was once believed to be a mythical unicorn, has been photographed in the wild for the first time, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) said Thursday.

Camera traps set by the ZSL and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) captured pictures of the okapi in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The pictures have dispelled fears that the species had died out in more than a decade of civil war.

Noelle Kumpel, ZSL's Bushmeat and Forests Conservation Program Manager, said: "To have captured the first-ever photographs of such a charismatic creature is amazing, and particularly special for ZSL given that the species was originally described here over a century ago.

"Okapi are very shy and rare animals, which is why conventional surveys only tend to record droppings and other signs of their presence."

The okapi, which have a black, giraffe-like tongue and zebra-like stripes on their behind, were last spotted in the Virunga National Park nearly 50 years ago on the west bank of the Semliki River.

The new ZSL survey revealed a previously unknown okapi population on the east side of the river.

Thierry Lusenge, a member of ZSL's Democratic Republic of Congo survey team, said: "The photographs clearly show the stripes on their rear, which act like unique fingerprints.

"We have already identified three individuals, and further survey work will enable us to estimate population numbers and distribution in and around the park, which is a critical first step in targeting conservation efforts."

The exact status of the okapi is unknown as civil conflict and poor infrastructure makes access to the forests of DRC difficult.

But ZSL warned that even the newly-discovered okapi population was under threat from poachers.

Okapi meat, reportedly from the Virunga park, is now on sale in the nearby town of Beni and ZSL warned that if hunting continues at the current rate, okapi could become extinct in the park within a few years.

So while it may have been possible that a small group of wild mountain loins native to PA may have survived un detected for many decades its very unlikely to have happened. Possible yes, probable no. IF there are wild reproducing mountains loins here and free roaming in PA from whatever source, its just another reason to pack a firearm just in case.

Also PA used to have wild elk – much smaller than the western transplant version we now have. Pa also used to have wild buffalo and lots of species that was hunted to extinction or they habitat was destroyed like building a mall with a parking lot kills everything better than hunting ever does.

[Swarner793]

From an article found here: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_413492.html

In 2002, Paul Beier, a cougar researcher from Northern Arizona University, said in a New York Times article that "they will eventually get to new Jersey, or at least close."

In a 2003 article in Outside Magazine, Maurice Hornocker, a University of Idaho biologist who is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the cats, said "lions will hit the Mississippi in the next decade." He predicted that they will then expand even further eastward, since "the East and Midwest is beautiful cat country, full of deer and cover."

There's evidence those predictions are coming true. Already, mountain lions have started showing up in places where they haven't been for decades. Several mountain lions believed to be wild have shown up east of the Mississippi River in Illinois in the last four years.


Be safe.

Scott

[lonehiker]

I don't think there is really a question if there are cougars in PA, rather I think the question should be what the hell are all the large black cats that are seen in the northeast?

I too have had a cougar sighting, saw one cross in front of me while I was driving south on 147 one night a few years ago. The tail, stubby head, and the way it moved sealed the deal... It was also the right color for a cougar... sandy gray...

one of the two i saw was black, but i did not want to mention the panther thing then the non-believers really would have doubted me !

there is confusion about black squrills also, although they are deffinatly larger than the grays, some say blacks are just color veriances of same

[renegadephoenix]

i'll get Falcon Four to chime in on this. him and I found some rather large feline tracks up in Elk county. the exact measurement and stride are listed in this post on HuntingPA.com

http://www.huntingpa.com/forums/ubbt...692912&fpart=1

[Lycanthrope]

Here's a photo of a lion print I was tracking in Colorado a few years back. She was tracking a coyote herself.



Lycancaturday?thrope

[glockman22]

Here's a photo of a lion print I was tracking in Colorado a few years back. She was tracking a coyote herself.



Lycancaturday?thrope

nice!!!!

[God's Country]

Urban legend. Nothing more.

[buster]

I know a PASTOR who, while traveling I-80, saw a truck load of coyotes headed to PA. Maybe the cougers had a little help migrating.