Mountain lions have a lifespan of about 8 to 13 years old in the wild. 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. Do elk live in Pennsylvania? Perhaps my Fed Ex driver was simply recalling a rural legend, but he said it was an employee that he knew, and it was a story he heard first-hand. Unfortunately, their web site no longer seems active, and has been taken over by some wacky drug product. It had been captured in Florida, and was to be released. The last documented sighting of an eastern cougar was one killed in Maine in 1938. Known as the Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania, there are four trails that lead to the cascades from the Bushkill Falls trailhead, each ranging in . Confirmed cougar sightings have increased in the Midwest and Great Lakes states in recent years.". And again, while they may have been mistaken, they certainly were completely convinced that they had seen a puma. They are there to help us. 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. For information on predator tracks, check out this guide: https://www.wildliferemoval.com/animal-track-identification-guide/, Please keep scrolling - ALL the Puma posts are included. Mountain lions have killed humans in the wild, though sightings and encounters are rare even in the American West and Canada. Packer Hill Ave. Jim Thorpe, PA 18229. Mountain lions were once widespread across North America, but their range shrunk dramatically as they were pursued through unregulated hunting and by farmers aiming to protect their livestock, and moved off the landscape by habitat fragmentation. Mountain lions live almost everywhere in the state of Washington. No one needs to panic.". Arkansas isnt somewhere that we would generally think of when looking for mountain lions, but they are on the rebound! A few could, perhaps, be mistaken idenity. You've got a mountain lion story or photo? Wishful thinking? Additionally, California banned the hunting of cougars back in 1972, encouraging population growth. Best hike for seeing waterfalls. This is actually a good thing, as genetic isolation generally weakens a species. While there have been no confirmed occurrences of mountain lions in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, dozens . In the forests of Kenya, however, they do occur. However, many of my reports were at distances that people knew, and as you look at the images of the puma there really is a big difference in color and shape between a puma and a house cat. It is an Italianate Villa home that features authentic Victorian furniture and finishing. Among those who have investigated the primeval times of the Pocono Plateau and Delaware River valleys and tributaries was the late Vernon Leslie, Ph.D., a Wayne County historian and archaeologist. Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? 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.". I don't want to seem like a nut case here, but I must ask this question and you'll soon understand why? The State argues that there is no physical evidence, and no credible photographs. 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. Bobcats, feral cats and domestic dogs may be misidentified as mountain lion. Heres What the Data Says. Most, quite honestly, don't know or can't believe or accept what they saw, they really can't believe their eyes. "From people that I trust have had visual sightings, they've seen mountain lions.". Apparently, this picture was really making the rounds. All of the above images are of bobcats. There's a saying that "things aren't always what they appear to be." "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. Well, right behind our property lies a mountain ridge, one of several that makes a continuous forest that extends, with little interruption, for scores of miles in three directions. Among other uses, the tax was levied "for destroying wolves, foxes, heads and crows." Had this been faked, I'd suspect the hoaxter would try for a more authentic background. As you can see from the above images it is very difficult to confuse the two if you have a good view. Despite reported sightings throughout the East, including Pennsylvania, and a confirmed mountain lion killed in Connecticut in 2011, there has been no evidence that any of those cats were native . redo these pages to match the new web site But that's not If you see a puma (mountain lion-cougar), contact me. "They preyed upon the caribou, and probably the mastodon," Leslie wrote of these large animals flourishing on the grasses and cold-climate flora that sprouted following the glacier's retreat. You be the judge. Very, very rarely, when I ask someone who would be a likely candidate (a hunter, someone who owns a camp in the deep woods, travels likely routes often, foresters), 'Have you ever seen a mountain lion?' There are approximately 4,000 of those 10- to 40-pound cats in the state. Although size can be difficult to determine in the field, a puma will be three or four times larger than a bobcat. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Ashley Catherine Fontones, Pocono Record. Fish and Wildlife Service officially declared the Eastern subspecies of the mountain lion extinct, which would seem to bolster the skeptics. Cougar vs Mountain Lion What Are the Differences? In August, Amy Walters said her 12-year-old son was spooked by a mountain lion in Forest County in northwest Pennsylvania while riding his dirt bike. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The Bushkill Falls are a series of eight waterfalls in a 300-acre wooded enclave hidden amongst the Poconos. Can so many people be so wrong? The last of three glaciations covered 30% of Pennsylvania, including much of the Poconos, from around 20,000-10,000 B.C. The other site, The Cougar Network, is still active, and is reporting the cats expanding range from the West, but offers little about the phenomenon of Pennsylvania cats. There are deserts, mountains, and swamps in the state of Utah, all of which are suitable for mountain lions. 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. Continuing with that thought, if that were so, then it'd be possible, if not very likely, that the Eastern puma would be an Endangered Species. Transient males have been sighted as far east as New York! "It was in Worthington State Forest just across the Delaware River from Smithfield Beach). Kross only saw the animal for a second, but it made a believer out of him. Instead, the person usually pauses, sometimes with a sheepish or embarrassed expression on his face, and seems reluctant to continue. Yet, except for Florida, which has about 100 of them "Florida panthers"), no eastern state has a verifiable population of these large 100- to 200-pound cats that were extirpated 100 years ago. "From three really reliable sources who are always around the woods from Monroe County to Bradford, there is no doubt that there are mountain lions in Pennsylvania," East Stroudsburg University football team offensive coordinator and avid hunter Mike Terwilliger said. Periodically, via Google searches, I receive reports from people who believe they had seen a mountain lion in Pennsylvania, or in other mid-Atlantic states. Is there a correct position for the upright on a Wimberley actionhead? My friend was a former hunter and fisherman, and spent a lot of time in the woods, as did I, but neither of us had ever seen a coyote. He saw his cat at very close range -- 20 yards or less, and when I pointed out to him that pumas are never black he said that perhaps it was the light. Where they always here as a relic population? 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. Wyoming has a historically stable population of mountain lions, but recent drops in numbers have caused some to worry. Most nature magazines state whether the photos were taken "under controlled conditions" rather than in the wild.). Those cats for which DNA evidence was recovered had come east from South Dakota, part of the known, modern-day, U.S. mountain lion range. Is there a Puma conspiracy? Unless I am only dealing with a lot of delusional people with little judgment, something is out there. 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. Mountain lions are 7-9 feet, while bobcats are 3 feet long. The claim of mountain lions on the move was bolstered in 2009 when one was killed by a car in Greenwich, Conn. All of the above are Mountain Lions, or Pumas, or Cougars. Is there a Mountain Lion Conspiracy? Recently the US Fish and Wildlife Service formally declared the Eastern Puma an extinct species, except for the remnant population in Florida. Viewers can never be certain that what they're seeing on a computer is actually what it's purported to be. Many of the reports I receive are extremely credible. 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. The states beautiful wilderness and mountainous terrain are prime mountain lion habitats. Because the neck bothered me, I decided to do some Photoshop on the puma in the lower left, moving his head higher up and changing the image to a contrasty black and white - to give a silhouette for comparision. "I thought I had a sighting in the late '90s," Delaware Water Gap National Recreation park ranger Chris Kross said. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) also reports evidence that humans arrived during the last glaciation or soon after. I've seen hoaxes, of pumas carrying deer shot with game cameras, but these were of western cats. It's sort of like big foot, some people say they've seen him.". Again, I've been told that some Game Commission personnel have admitted that pumas may exist in Pennsylvania, but they rationalize this by saying that the pumas are not breeding and they are not from original wild stock.