Editor's note: The Pocono Record and Tri-County Independent have collaborated for a series of stories called Mountain Beasts: Pocono cryptids, legends and lore.
Pocono beasts: Mastodons, wolves, cougars once abundant in region Are mountain lions on their way to Pennsylvania? - pennlive.com Armand Martinelli isn't only the mayor of East Stroudsburg, he's also a hunter who is connected with plenty of people in the area. Where reports dating that far back from escapees? However, if you've seen a mountain lion, or other mystery creature, or evidence of either, in Pennsylvania, contact outdoor writer Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.). Mountain lion killed in Connecticut was on the opposite side of Pennsylvania a year ago, Is it real? To learn more about "lion country" in Colorado check here. "Hunters are always saying they see mountain lions, and the Game Commission always says there aren't any," said Robert Hale, owner of Buffalo Gap Outfitters in Dillsburg. Everyone else, when reporting, were frustrated as they were told they had seen a bobcat. Would a puma then qualify as a native species? Here are the 15 US States That Have Mountain Lions. A dark brown puma, backlighted by a strong sun, could appear all black, or very dark, and he accepted that. I think it is possible that recognizing the existence of pumas in the East could jeopardize this industry and an entire economy. 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. It will happen eventually. a high priority. All rights reserved (About Us). 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. Many have a desire to see some clear-cut evidence. Currently, mountain lions seem to be making a comeback in regard to their historic range. State Game Officials do concede that some people may indeed have seen a puma, but it was undoubtedly a released captive. Over the last few months several people have responded to this question with reports of their own. "They are very strong animals," she said. All rights reserved. I've never seen or heard of a verified black puma anywhere, whether wild or captive, so I'd be inclined to dismiss reports of truly black big cats as misidentifications, even when a group of guys all see the same thing. The question is just like in the story of the boy who cried wolf) if that day ever arrives, how will we believe those first, true sightings after so many hoaxes have been perpetrated on the public? Encouraged by the bounties, settlers waged war on these perceived beasts. They are generally believed to be young cats roaming in search of new breeding territories to claim as their own. The rounded ears, Interestingly, almost all of the people I've spoken to who claim to have seen a puma have not seen a bobcat, an animal that is common enough in Pennsylvania to support a legal trapping season! I'll be anxious to learn of your report. Is there a correct position for the upright on a Wimberley actionhead. Where they always here as a relic population? Like Arizona, New Mexico is the perfect home for mountain lions. It wasn't, and I assumed it was a road-kill. In Tennessee, the most likely places you would find them would be in the forest. Noted Wayne County historian Phineas Goodrich recorded in his 1880 book on local history that the common gray wolf was much more common in this area than the cougar. Check out our online field guide to read more in this series. However, my friend and I discussed this, and agreed, we saw what we saw, and had it been 40 years ago or four months ago, we knew we saw a coyote. Mountain lions roamed all of the continent prior to the arrival and westward spread of European settlers, but only the eastern and Florida subspecies were found east of the Mississippi. Some have even reported seeing a "black panther," a near-impossibility because of the rarity of that recessive gene. Interestingly, the US Fish and Wildllife Service has declared the Eastern Puma extinct, except for the Florida population known as the Florida panther. A few could, perhaps, be mistaken idenity.
Pa Mountain lion, cougar, or big cat in bucks county Pennsylvania Some may also be kept illicitly as pets, which would quickly become a problem as the cat matures. "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. ? Arkansas isnt somewhere that we would generally think of when looking for mountain lions, but they are on the rebound! "We should be getting more pictures. On that note, I was speaking with a Fed Ex driver recently who told me that one of his colleagues had seen what he swore was a dead mountain lion on the side of a road. It was estimated to be a young adult American Mastodon that had died about 12,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Imagination? Several populations of Gray Squirrels scattered around the country are black, and recently I heard of a neighborhood of black Eastern Chipmunks. I've seen scores of leopards in the grasslands and deserts of East Africa and I've never seen, nor spoke with anyone, who has seen a black leopard there. People can manipulate, enhance or combine photos and then create their own stories about the subject's origin, location and even identification. "While confirmed cougar sightings have occurred recently in the wild in the East, there is currently no scientific or physical evidence documenting the continued existence of a population of wild eastern cougars," according to the U.S. Contact the AZ Animals editorial team. Mary saw the photo, too, and she immediately agreed, it was a puma. But no one that I've communicated with had these preconceptions, and seeing what they saw was a complete surprise. It has the color of a mountain lion, but the long tail appears to be missing. Same story as 'black panthers' across the country, because of course there, scientifically, can be no such thing. Are mountain lions on their way to Pennsylvania? They include a reported attack on horses at a farm near Dillsburg, York County, that Foster thinks may be legitimate. 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 don't believe someone's imagination could stretch a six inch long tail to three feet! One of these days, though, I'll get one that won't be, and I hope that will be soon.
Pocono Mountains: Best Things To See And Do - TravelAwaits Are there Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? Of interestRamapough Lenape chief: National park in PA and NJ would be among 'most destructive things' since colonization. Among other uses, the tax was levied "for destroying wolves, foxes, heads and crows." 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. Recently the US Fish and Wildlife Service formally declared the Eastern Puma an extinct species, except for the remnant population in Florida. Mountain lions typically eat about one deer per week, along with other smaller prey as the opportunity arises. A total of 32 mountain lions have been struck and killed by vehicles in the study area since 2002. There is a big community of mountain lion enthusiasts across the Northeast convinced that the animals still exist in breeding populations. Consider that the endangered Florida puma has mixed genes. It was decided that this shouldn't influence the decision and, in fact, an infusion of new genes produces a hybrid vigor, lessening the chance of in-breeding. I am hoping that more and more people will learn of my own interest in this, and will pass on this information and that I'll receive more reports and, hopefully, sometime, a game camera photo that is definitive. Are Mountain Lions in Missouri Making a Comeback? I'm wondering, then, if the complete dismissal of sightings of Eastern pumas (other than the acknowledgement of released or escaped pets) isn't motivated by economics. The woman, a 66-year-old grandmother, asked not to be identified because she's a senior and didn't want people "bothering" her about it. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. "The day will come," he said, "when someone will pull the trigger on a mountain lion.". Michelle LaRue, executive director of the Cougar Network and a research ecologist at the University of Minnesota, will discuss the eastern expansion of cougars from their core range in the western U.S. at 7 p.m. in Moravian College's Haupert Union Building, Bethlehem. I've know of reports since 1973, in Cooke Forest, the heart of a lot of Pa. wilderness. In 2011, a confirmed mountain lion was killed by a vehicle in Connecticut and which had been determined that it had wandered east from the Mid-West. Leslie estimated that the first humans making up the Paleo-Indians lived in the upper Delaware valley as early as 11,000 B.C. Newspapers carried stories in 1956 about hunters supposedly seeing and killing wolves in Pike and Monroe Counties. WATCH: Sharks biting alligators, the most epic lion battles, and MUCH more. Biologists who investigate these reports claim that several may, indeed, be mountain lions, but most likely they're animals that have escaped from captivity or have been released by their owners. On some investigations, Foster has teamed up with Stacey Griffiths, who started the Central PA Mountain Lion Sightings page earlier this year. A Game Commission vehicle was there, and the Fed Ex driver, after reaching the bottom of a long hill, turned back to check on what he saw. Check out the tails of the two! Of course, the writer's comments were hearsay, but it does make sense. The Cougar Network, working with state agencies, have documented multiple mountain lions as far east as Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan in recent years, as well as one cat killed on a highway in Milford, Connecticut, in June 2011. They have almost been killed off a few times, but conservation efforts have helped to keep their numbers stable. Joseph Pugliese 2.2K views 7 years ago Beautiful Bobcat in our yard as our. 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. In Michigan, there has been multiple sightings of 'black panthers,' animals that were thought to be mountain lions, or pumas, except that they were black. 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.
Bigfoot, mountain lions and other cryptids in PA "If there was mountain lions in Pennsylvania), I think we'd be getting reports from farmers and people with pets that there were attacks on their animals," Martinelli said. In the map above, I collected data from the state and on the federal level to find state parks . Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. An assessment list for Lower Smithfield Township in 1761 when it was part of Northampton County (Monroe having not yet been created) taxed "three pence per pound and shillings per head" laid on the land and inhabitants. Furthermore, a different set of photos showed a "mountain lion" dragging a deer into the woods in Bradford County. I have three observations here: 1. So many of these sightings have been proven wrong misidentified bobcats, coyotes or even house cats) that it would be irresponsible for a biologist to accept any of them as fact without absolute physical evidence hair, droppings, tracks or a road-killed animal. I've seen about 20 mountain lions, or pumas, in the field, but all but 2 were in Chile. A bobcat gives you a warm, that-kind-of-looks-like-my-cat-but-slightly-bigger feeling. They are there to help us. Once a mountain lion matures, it will leave its mother and find its own territory. If mountain lions are discovered in PA anytime soon they'll either be big foot's pets or genetically engineered and released by the DCNR to cull the orangu-bear population. Mountain lions can live in almost any habitat including forests, prairies, deserts, and swamps. Over time, cats that had been released in Florida, probably pets that outlived their welcome, bred with the native puma, and their genes mingled, Over the last few years I've done several Questions of the Month regarding Mountain Lions, or Pumas as they should properly be called, in the Mid-Atlantic States and in Pennsylvania. Caribou meat apparently was part of their diet. I wanted to know if they're here, so I called some people I trust and asked them one simple question: Are there mountain lions in Pennsylvania?
Are There Mountain Lions In Pa? - CLJ If you see a puma (mountain lion-cougar), contact me. 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. The bounty for adult wolves and cougars was raised on March 16, 1819 to $12. (What is meant by "heads" is not clear.). Mountain Lion Reports Over the last two years I have occasionally posted a Question of the Month soliciting sightings from people who believed that they have seen a mountain lion in Pennsylvania or in other areas in the mid-Atlantic states. The last native mountain lion known to be killed in Pennsylvania is on display in the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. I believe that the folks that are reporting, in detail, their sightings are faced with a similar situation. That solution: Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up. "Given the period of time that has passed without verification of even a single eastern puma, the service concludes that the last remaining members of this subspecies perished decades ago," the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a Federal Register notice.
Pocono Mountains - Wikipedia This is not a Pennsylvania puma! To be fair, I've also spoken with people who, at first, thought they'd seen a puma only to find, to their embarassment, that they were looking at a house cat! Thank you for reading! Foster said mountain lions and bobcats could not breed.
The 6 best hikes in the Poconos Mountains - Lonely Planet But many others believe wild mountain lions are traveling from Western states, where as many as 30,000 could exist, and across the Midwest to Pennsylvania seeking new territory. An animal's coat can stray far from the norm.
Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania - Hoot Hollow Hunters I've spoken with said they've been told you can't kill a puma, which they felt was ironic since the same official told them pumas don't exist in Pa. In many regions, the population within the state is actually increasing! No one needs to panic.".
What you wouldn't expect to find here anymore is a mountain lion. 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. Viewers can never be certain that what they're seeing on a computer is actually what it's purported to be. It was recorded in Minnesota and Wisconsin in late 2009 and early 2010, and then died in Connecticut in 2011. That may be true, or was once true, but even a declawed puma, if it can survive off rabbits and squirrels, and breeds, its offspring would be fully equipted to survive. There's a whole world to learn about and Colby is content to spend his life learning as much as he can about it! Mountain lions live in rescue centers like Murray's, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission said a dozen or so people are permitted to possess them. Sadly, the hunting guidelines for cougars in Idaho are lax, with 400-600 cats being killed each year.