3 Last 10 Years. The bite usually results in a blister-like sore that can take six to eight weeks to heal. I have seen a large cat on several occasions driving home at night from work. All rights reserved. A few captive cougars have escaped over the years, but these cats have been quickly recaptured. Cougars distaste for humans runs so deep that a study found that simply playing talk radio was enough to get these cougars to permanently abandon what they were eating. Some restrictions apply. In the winter, cougar tracks maybe up to six inches long. Idaho Fish and Game officers and personnel responded to . In January, the U.S. The tail of the cat is an excellent identification tool: cougars have two- to three-foot-long wiry tails with a black tip, and bobcats have a short bobbed tail that is only three to eight inches long. Until recently, whenever the sighting of a mountain lion was reported in PA, the intial response from the PGC was to say the sighting was a misidentification. The last mountain lion sighting in the St. Louis region occurred in 2017, when a motorist struck a lion on Interstate 70 in Warren County, Zarlenga said. If cougars are out there, why hasn't one ever been killed on a highway or shot? One was spotted late Tuesday in Hamilton near a bus stop. Yes I believe their are mountain lion ghost cats in PA. PA mountain areas are remote and it is impossible to kill all of the cats who are quite secretive. Murray also has a cross-eyed white tiger named Keisha, who crushed chicken bones with ease but delicately stepped into a metal pool to cool off. A hunter and an angler, San Julian, like most other outdoorsmen and nature lovers, wants to believe wild mountain lions survive in the woods of Pennsylvania. While juvenile males do make long journeys when they are young, they rarely make it to the Lake States (Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin). Traveling Route 248 in Northampton County just 1 mile east of Pennsville. "If my son would have been on a pedal bike, without a helmet on, that thing would have nailed him," said Walters, 44. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. Records show that more than 600 cougars were killed in Centre County alone during the 1800s. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. To download a high-resolution image, go to http://aginfo.psu.edu/news/august01/lion.tif. The abundance of wildlife that thrives in Pennsylvania makes sightings of interesting animals fairly commonplacebears, foxes, coywolves and elk are all within the realm of expectations. All rights reserved. Page 3 Pa Mountain Lion. Mountain lions are 7-9 feet, while bobcats are 3 feet long. Coyoteseat wildlife including mice, voles, deer, rabbits and woodchucks. Without major changes in both cougar biology, cougar behavior, and public opinion, it is unlikely that cougars can return to the wilds of Pennsylvania. They include a reported attack on horses at a farm near Dillsburg, York County, that Foster thinks may be legitimate. Bobcats are much smaller, only two to three feet long (head to tail) and one to two feet high at the shoulder. The next highest state, New Jersey, had only 3,900, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is roughly three times the length of a bobcat or coyotes stride (~16 inches). adroll_adv_id = "T6XR4YM2C5FGXNZIDZPFXI"; I told her I knew what a Maine Coon cat looked like and this was BIG, had short hair and LONG tail. U.S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO By Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle Dec 15, 2018 1 of 2 Mountain lions are believed not to exist in Massachusetts, but that only means they don't live or breed here. The distance traveled varies based on habitat, time of year, and study methods. There has never been any conclusive evidence.". Sounded like a giant animal was sprinting down the mountain right before we saw it. Heres how to pull big bluegills from Iowas West Lake Okoboji, A look at some other ways to call in a spring gobbler, How to catch and cook whitefish and tullibees, Nows the time to savor the fruits of the hunting experience. "We should be getting more pictures. Let us know. Fear of the human super predator reduces feeding time in large carnivores. Lion take a fawn in a swamp 1 mile from my home in the same county. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Despite annual reports since the 1950s, no confirmed sighting was made in the state until the 1990s. "Absolutely bobcat," Taylor said. There are approximately 4,000 of those 10- to 40-pound cats in the state. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. But an image captured by one family's security camera last weekend certainly shows what looks to be a mountain lion. "I'm proud to know her," Murray said of the tiger, "but I wish I didn't.". San Julian can even send scat to be tested for cougar DNA. They wanted to hear from anyone who saw a mountain lion or signs of one, like tracks or scats. Pennsylvania is currently home to only one wild cat: the bobcat. Slowly, mountain lions recolonized North America after having retreated to warmer climates in South America during the Pleistocene ice age. Pennsylvania's venomous snakes are hard to find. Upperparts are grizzled gray or dark brown to buff, cinnamon tawny, or rufous. A cougar or puma is like a UFO with four feet.. Saw some huge cat prints on the mountain in NEPA near white haven. One solution [to the loss of ginseng] that [this complete nut ] believes will ensure the herbs survival is to reintroduce mountain lions, wolves or other natural predators to the Appalachians. On Friday July 8, 2022 there was a few reported Mountain Lion sightings the last few days one actually involving an encounter with one's family in their lawn. Although the chances of being attacked by an animal are slim, and even slimmer that you could die from an attack by a creature, there are indeed animals capable of wreaking havoc on humans. But Dave "Gadget" Jones, a retired wildlife conservation officer from Lackawanna County, claims he's seen a white bigfoot and a UFO in Pennsylvania, so who knows? The Connecticut mountain lion is the best documented wild Mountain Lion in New England. So, if you live close to here please keep this in mind while you are hiking or walking along the wooded areas. Bobcats tend to be darker brown, with lighter belly fur and spots while mountain lions tend to be more uniform brown, tawny color. "With all of that said, though, there's a general lack of evidence of mountain lions in Pennsylvania. 2021. Get started. "I have been in this business long enough not to doubt what people say they have seen," says San Julian, "but I think most sightings are escaped pets or animals released by people.". Young cougars (one- to two-years old) leave their mothers to establish a new territory. State Farm insurancecalculates that one out of every 67 drivers in Pennsylvania had a claim related to a deer collision in 2016. Murray also has a cross-eyed white tiger named Keisha, who crushed chicken bones with ease but delicately stepped into a metal pool to cool off. http://www.buckmanager.com/2009/04/17/deer-management-and-some-thoughts-on-predator-control/, Just posted if looked like this size Juvenile males are the individuals that are seen outside of traditional" cougar range in places like Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The last promising scat turned out to be from a large coyote that had eaten a lot of meat. Mountain Lions - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) NPS.gov Park Home Learn About the Park Nature Animals Mammals Mountain Lion Mountain Lion Last updated: May 4, 2018 Was this page helpful? He saw a cougar and ended up shooting and killing the animal. Of course, bees are crucial to our existence. But more and more people in Pennsylvania, from the Alleghenies to the Poconos to rolling farmlands in York County, claim they are seeing the big cats here, even though the state's "last" native lion, also known as a cougar or puma, was shot and killed in Berks County in 1871 and the feds have declared the Eastern subspecies extinct. Hard evidence that wild, free-ranging mountain lions are living in the state they did not. Lion sightings they got. The red face of a mountain lion came out of the top of the mountain then dropped down. Figure 2. My horse was spooked twice & I heard a guttural growling but never seen any animal. Its eventual death and poor condition show how difficult dispersal is and unlikely it is for individuals to survive when they disperse outside of their range. The only native North American mountain lion species (Puma concolor) has long since been extirpated from the eastern United States, with the exception of a small population of Florida panthers whose genetic roots are a subject of debate. Tan shading indicates regions where dispersing juveniles have been sighted, but there are no established populations in these areas. The Journal of Wildlife Management 76(7):1364-1369. Someone photographed the animal at the Brunswick School on Greenwich, Connecticut about 40 miles away on June 5th. Previous Post Dani Moz featured in blockbuster movie trailer The track of a cougar found in Michigans Upper Peninsula (photo credit: Michigan Department of Natural Resources). Then it disappeared for some time, until scat was found again in New York, and it was finally killed in Connecticut. A friend sent this to me. No one needs to panic.". I was driving on a dark and stormy night about 9 years ago on Rt-515 just off of Rt-23. Isolated juvenile males have been found as far east as Michigans Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. Pennlive.com reports trappers kill more than 40,000 of them in Pennsylvania every year. And when our officers go out to investigate reports of mountain lions, or when our staff reviews photos that are sent to us, often we're able to verify some other animal mistakenly was reported as a mountain lion.". Over 1,100 people follow her page. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A recent rumor of a cougar killed by a vehicle on Interstate 80 attracted some attention at Penn State. If you see a mountain lion. "But we believe that the likely source is an illegally released animal.". Not valid with other promotions. Courtesy photo. Travis Lau, a spokesperson for the Game Commission, said the state has a "never say never" approach when it comes to mountain lions and acknowledges that Western cats could be moving east. "I kind of doubt they saw a cougar, but I'm not God.". It had recently killed a buck and was dragging it across the road. We heard the fox screaming multiple times before we saw it. "The coloration and the shape of the head lean toward mountain lion(Felis concolor)but they have a tail thats almost as long as their body, and this animal clearly is lacking a tail," Taylor said. (Preferably while videotaping it) There is a $4000 bounty for a mountain lion carcass in PA. For those not following the debate, the PGC's official position is that there has not been a mountain lion in PA in more than 50 years. Cars and car tires are also good scales; a cougar will be half the length of a sedan and taller than its tires. 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