are there mountain lions in the poconos are there mountain lions in the poconos

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. "When I started telling people, most of them didn't believe me, but I will never forget that huge face staring right at me," said a Montgomery County woman who says she saw a lion last summer in Limerick Township while walking her dog. Both were a threat to the farmer and family who carved a home in the ancient wilderness of the Poconos. I've spoken to PGC personnel, two being friends, and neither believe there are pumas in Pa. One cited how a bobcat's tail can be much longer than you expect, although I've never seen a bobcat tail longer than, at most, twice the size of the tails illustrated above of the bobcat. About half of the state of Montana is ideal for mountain lions, primarily in her western and central regions. Would a puma then qualify as a native species? Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. . There's a whole world to learn about and Colby is content to spend his life learning as much as he can about it! What is the Kiboko backpack? Biologists traced it. Mountain Lions do remain in the western states and there is evidence that in 2011, a mountain lion migrated about 1,500 miles from South Dakota to Connecticut where it was killed by a. "Likewise, I'm not aware of any escapes from captive facilities in my time here. Many of those claiming to have encountered a cougar in Pennsylvania take that non-confirmation by the commission as an attack on their veracity and character. Still, these resilient animals reside in secluded areas across the United States, with current data suggesting they may even be returning to their historical regions! Certainly it is a romantic notion, but I've always held out the hope that pumas still roamed the east. Why do I advocate manual exposure so avidly? It was recorded in Minnesota and Wisconsin in late 2009 and early 2010, and then died in Connecticut in 2011. "From people that I trust have had visual sightings, they've seen mountain lions.". There's a saying that "things aren't always what they appear to be." Are the various States guilty of essentially the same thing? Most of the people I've spoken with live in this belt, but biologists friends I've spoken with have told me of their own reports, first-hand, from hunters in the Poconos who saw pumas, too. The Cascade Mountains are an important habitat for mountain lions in the region, and a stable population lives within the state. And book one of these Poconos cabins rentals for the best outdoor access to these activities. Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. In his 1973 book "Faces in Clay" Leslie lays open the archaeological treasures of stone arrow or spear points and tools lost long ago by a succession of native peoples. The reintroduction of mountain lions into South Dakota is one of the great wins of modern conservation. John Leap of East Stroudsburg's Lakeside Peat Humus Co. and an employee, Paul Strauser, found the bones in a peat bog off Route 209. Wishful thinking? What does a Puma (Mountain Lion) look like on a Game Camera? So what? There are at least 20,000 black bears in Pa., and a small percentage are killed each year, but we're probably not talking about 20,000 pumas in the state. Are there Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? For many who have believed to have seen a cougar in the wilds of the Poconos, these arguments might be less than convincing. You be the judge. Now, if there were any escapes, and if any of these bred with a possible minuscule number of eastern pumas, a relic native population, wouldn't the gene pool be corrupted? Mountain lions weigh 90-160 pounds, while bobcats weigh 20-30 pounds. The mountain lion is a large, slender cat, with a long rope-like tail. When he isn't distracted by his backyard birdfeeder, you can find him camping, exploring, and telling everyone around him about what he's recently learned. None of these sightings has been authenticated, and many of them, including a recent, alleged mountain lion picked up on a surveillance camera in Lackawanna County, turned out to be bobcats. Once a mountain lion matures, it will leave its mother and find its own territory. Controlled hunting of mountain lions is allowed within the state. In Pennsylvania, I receive a few reports of black, big cats, which makes one wonder -- are there melanistic (black) pumas out there, or are those sightings always wrong. I don't want to seem like a nut case here, but I must ask this question and you'll soon understand why? The photographer had no reason to stage the shot -- indeed, the composition and background was terrible, and not what you'd expect for something staged, but the shot wasn't perfectly clear. This is actually a good thing, as genetic isolation generally weakens a species. Mountain Lion in Pocono's Pennsylvania Kacie PA 7.9K views 2 years ago Mountain lion in bucks county pa or not? If there were wild cougars in our midst, the Game Commission also pointed out, eventually there would be solid evidence such as a carcass, scat and paw prints that could be verified. At the end of the last Ice Age, many animals in Pennsylvania died out. Enter your email in the box below to get the most mind-blowing animal stories and videos delivered directly to your inbox every day. I have received about two dozen reports during that time, including one game camera image that still looks very credible to me. Good luck, and let me know! He knows and was familiar with bobcats, and it was not a weird house cat that he and his friends misjudged in size. Those special two were across a river just outside Glacier National Park in Montana, and consisted of a mother and two cubs (Mary saw both cubs, I only saw one, and we did so separately, as we were driving two vehicles). What does a Mountain Lion look like on a game camera? Not only do hunting licenses support the various state game commissions, and in some states the acquisition and maintenance of public hunting lands, but hunters are a huge boon to local economies each fall, with purchases of food, lodging, hunting equipment, etc. Many people have claimed to see them, and this writer chronicled numerous such reports in the local press from the mid-1990s to the 2010s. After a small population was reintroduced into their historic land, their population has grown to a stable and breeding group of between 200-300 individuals. A tiny population of Florida cougars persists in the southeastern corner of the United States. The last known mountain lion in Pennsylvania was killed in Berks County in 1874. Kross only saw the animal for a second, but it made a believer out of him. Leap transferred ownership rights to the state. At one point, there was debate whether that cat should be protected, since its genes were diluted from escapees or released pumas that originated in South America or our West. A second image of the same cat, in a different light, reveals the trademark spots of a bobcat. "The cougars examined in the Northeast in the past 70 years are likely released or escaped captives. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The first is the mating season which can occur during the late to early spring months. They know what they saw, regardless of what the facts say, and they know they saw a puma. There had been 17 other mastodon finds in Pennsylvania up to 1968, but all were fragmentary. Most of my original Questions of the Month for the last several Depends on who you talk to, I guess. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. The State argues that there is no physical evidence, and no credible photographs. There are controlled hunting laws in the state of Oregon. DCNR gave the following as examples: the saber-tooth cat; a small, three-toed horse; the Pleistocene beaver, and the mastodon. They have almost been killed off a few times, but conservation efforts have helped to keep their numbers stable. By the time he returned the vehicle was gone, and so was the cat, and no mention was ever made of this road kill in a radio or newspaper report. "I kind of doubt they saw a cougar, but I'm not God.". See also: More common critters co-existed with early Native Americans in the Poconos, including two species long since removed: the wolf and mountain lion (also known colloquially as panthers and cougars). If youve done any research on your own, you may have noticed that we didnt include a lot of states that have had cougar sightings, especially in the last few years. Joseph Pugliese 2.2K views 7 years ago Beautiful Bobcat in our yard as our. So how or why could there be a conspiracy? With that hope in mind, I have, for years, asked outdoors people if they ever heard of a mountain lion, or puma, in their area -- with my questioning limited to people in my home state of Pennsylvania. Hunting is legal in the state, but it is heavily controlled and restricted. An article in last year's New York State Conservationist magazine about mountain lions concluded that none exists in that state, even in the 6-million-acre Adirondack Mountain wilderness. Goggling Eastern Puma brings up other web sites, however, with varying levels of professionalism or credibility. It had been captured in Florida, and was to be released. Instead, the person usually pauses, sometimes with a sheepish or embarrassed expression on his face, and seems reluctant to continue. 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.". The mountain lion, which is also called a cougar, puma or panther, weighs on average between 75-120 pounds, has long whiskers and a distinctive swooping tail. Pocono Record sports writer Mike Kuhns wrote a great piece on Oct. 14, "Does the mountain lion roam PA?" Mountain lion populations struggle to outpace the high hunting limits. Check out our online field guide to read more in this series. Please keep scrolling - ALL the Puma posts are included. ? Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Outdoor adventures abound, and so do our fabulous shopping and restaurants. The rounded ears, Interestingly, the US Fish and Wildllife Service has declared the Eastern Puma extinct, except for the Florida population known as the Florida panther. "If my son would have been on a pedal bike, without a helmet on, that thing would have nailed him," said Walters, 44. There are deserts, mountains, and swamps in the state of Utah, all of which are suitable for mountain lions. Its fur is a light, tawny brown color which can appear gray or almost black, depending on light conditions. Would that declaration close that ridge to hunting? Mountain lions are 7-9 feet, while bobcats are 3 feet long. This is huge news for conservationists around the country and a sign that cougars may be heading east once again. If you see or photograph a puma in the mid-Atlantic states, please email or call me. We hope you enjoy this foray into the most weird and wonderful our beloved Pocono Mountains have to offer. These experiences are still available, but the reality is there is so much more for the mature traveler to enjoy in the Pocono Mountains. Although size can be difficult to determine in the field, a puma will be three or four times larger than a bobcat. In the area around the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia there are mountains and deep caves that contain some of the coal mines that were a major part of the state's industry in the early part of the 19 th century. Where they always here as a relic population? Where reports dating that far back from escapees? Mountain lions are well-established in 14 western states and have also recently been confirmed in 10 Midwestern states: Nebraska, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin. "With all of that said, though, there's a general lack of evidence of mountain lions in Pennsylvania. They often would catch sheep in broad daylight. Murray said Rocky was emaciated and chained when she found him at a private zoo. The last of three glaciations covered 30% of Pennsylvania, including much of the Poconos, from around 20,000-10,000 B.C. I believe Kross fully, but I wanted to hear more. Foster said mountain lions and bobcats could not breed. I was heading up the road and I saw an animal with a long tail.". Some experts predict that this wide-ranging predator, which can travel 600 miles in search of a territory, will surely reach our eastern states sometime in the next few decades. I don't believe someone's imagination could stretch a six inch long tail to three feet! Contrary to popular belief, there are no black panthers in North America; no one has ever captured or killed a black Mountain Lion. Then there is Rocky. On the second night, a mountain lion passed by, apparently drawn by the smell but put off by the stench, as the cat did not visit the kill. Some outdoor enthusiasts insist they have seen the big cats here and believe them to be naturally occurring, native animals. Do elk live in Pennsylvania? There is a small breeding population in the state, despite being killed off in the 1920s. "He doesn't like men too much," said Suzanne Murray, owner of East Coast Exotic Animal Rescue in this south-central Pennsylvania town. Newspapers carried stories in 1956 about hunters supposedly seeing and killing wolves in Pike and Monroe Counties. No evidence has ever been produced to support those charges. No An official form of the United States government. a high priority. Currently, there are only 15 states that meet that qualification. Imagine my surprise. In all those hours I never saw a coyote, bear, or bobcat, and yet all live in my area. During this time, male mountain lions will travel in search of females. Although size can be difficult to determine in the field, a puma will be three or four times larger than a bobcat. It was definitely a mountain lion, and it had a big buck, white-tailed deer in its jaws. 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. At one time mountain lions, or more properly puma (Puma concolor), enjoyed the widest geographic range of any New World mammal, and were found throughout all of the contiguous United States. This, after they were told that there were no pumas in Pa. No projectile points or spearheads were found with the remains, indicating the animal may have died naturally rather than killed by native hunters. Check out the tails of the two! If we continue to be bombarded with manipulated photos and untrue claims in most cases by people who just want to get attention then we may be very resistant to accepting the "real McCoy" if or when) one finally arrives. I've know of reports since 1973, in Cooke Forest, the heart of a lot of Pa. wilderness. "We've been here 45 years and I've probably been told by people at least 100 times that they've seen a cougar or mountain lion," said owner Vince Hall. A brief look, yes, but no question we saw a coyote. They've been extinct in the eastern part of North America for more than a century. Florida is the only state on the east coast with a breeding population of mountain lions. Mountain lions typically eat about one deer per week, along with other smaller prey as the opportunity arises. Here's more about mountain lions in Pennsylvania: If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. It's sort of like big foot, some people say they've seen him.". Eyes are normal and are not light sensitive, and the over-all color, generally black, is usually not detrimental and may actually be of benefit. I've seen so many examples of these distortions, exaggerations and lies over the last couple of years that I've grown very dubious about anything I see on a computer. Over 1,100 people follow her page. I regularly ask hunters and outdoors people if they've ever seen a mountain lion, or know of anyone that has. Below is a list of physical characteristics that distinguish mountain lions from more . Is there a correct position for the upright on a Wimberley actionhead? Since mountain lions are the top predators (unlike most other states with grizzly bears), they have a well-developed population. I've looked in the PGC game laws booklet and saw nothing on this, which I guess you could conclude means a puma would not be legal to shoot. And how many would let them go, or provide an opportunity for escaping? I have not spoken with a Game Commission officer personally, so I don't know whether anyone killing a puma in Pennsylvania could do so without legal repercussions. Two different people told me that they, or a close relative, had seen pumas on more than one occasion. According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, there are no wild, breeding cougar populations in this state anymore. In Yellowstone, definite puma country (perhaps not ideal habitat, but pumas are found in every section of Yellowstone), I've spoken to guys on road crews and with rangers, each with 20 years of field or road experience in Yellowstone, and the ranger had only seen 2 (both road kills and together) and the road crew guys two or three in all their years.