are there mountain lions in the poconos

This animal was undoubtedly a bobcat. "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. By the mid-1900s pumas were eliminated from almost all of the eastern states, and by mid-century were officially extinct east of the Mississippi, except for a remnant population in southern Florida. Foster, the Messiah College professor, said he has investigated about 15 reported mountain lion sightings since late May, and believed "three or four are pretty likely a mountain lion." (570) 325-3229. 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. Check out our online field guide to read more in this series. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. If we say it ain't so, it ain't so! It will happen eventually. There isnt an official estimate on mountain lions in the state. 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. Interesting, too, are the reports I've heard from people who were told that they would be in big trouble if they shot a puma. Scientists debate whether the large prehistoric mammals became extinct at the end of the Ice Age due to over-hunting, or rapid climate warming. He's a hunter, a woodsman, and he's seen a lot of game, so I can believe he saw a back-lighted puma. Hunting is legal in the state, but it is heavily controlled and restricted. There are, from time to time, eyewitness accounts from hunters or hikers who claim to have seen the cat. We hope you enjoy this foray into the most weird and wonderful our beloved Pocono Mountains have to offer. The last native mountain lion known to be killed in Pennsylvania is on display in the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. Fish and Wildlife Service. Recently, on a back road in Pennsylvania, a friend and I had our first sighting of a coyote in Pennsylvania. Note the size of the tail, the pointed ears, the speckled coat, the basic lack of white underneath. Who knows? They are generally believed to be young cats roaming in search of new breeding territories to claim as their own. 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. Today, we are going to explore the 15 US states that have mountain lions, plus a few others that may have some. The last documented sighting of an eastern cougar was one killed in Maine in 1938. Provided by Touchpoints And again, while they may have been mistaken, they certainly were completely convinced that they had seen a puma. Phineas Teeple of Manchester Township is thought to have killed the last wolf in Wayne County. "They're getting a lot of that out west. These experiences are still available, but the reality is there is so much more for the mature traveler to enjoy in the Pocono Mountains. This is not a Pennsylvania puma! The hunting policy of the state may be the cause of the dropping population, and pressure on the Fish and Game Commission has increased. Compare any game camera image with the shots above, or this game camera image, to confirm your identification. Although there was no evidence that the 2011 mountain lion ever set foot in Pennsylvania, DNA evidence confirmed that it had been both west and east of the state. 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. 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. No projectile points or spearheads were found with the remains, indicating the animal may have died naturally rather than killed by native hunters. Two weeks ago, a friend of mine who teaches in one of the Monroe County school districts called to tell me he was sending me a photo of a mountain lion taken by one of his students in the Poconos. 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. What equipment do we take in the field? According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, there are no wild, breeding cougar populations in this state anymore. 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. There are controlled hunting laws in the state of Oregon. What would account for the long tails? 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. RelatedBigfoot, mountain lions, and other mythical creatures: PA officials discuss what they know. Of interestRamapough Lenape chief: National park in PA and NJ would be among 'most destructive things' since colonization. Mountain lions that are looking for new breeding areas are known as transient and are almost always males. 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. How, Who, and Why? For example, one man I interviewed said he saw a 'black' puma, and this should disqualify his sighting as a black puma has never been recorded. This will be one of your best identification marks, along with size. 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. Viewers can never be certain that what they're seeing on a computer is actually what it's purported to be. Many have a desire to see some clear-cut evidence. Mountain lions typically eat about one deer per week, along with other smaller prey as the opportunity arises. I love the big cats and devote a huge amount of my field time photographing African lions, leopards, cheetahs, and in 2011, tigers. They regularly join the camp of those angrily claiming the commission has introduced the big cats back into Pennsylvania as a control measure against the state's huge deer population. One man sent me a game camera photo that was blurry but looked like a mountain lion, or puma, as I like to call them. Recently, a man I spoke with told me that he was reminded of a sighting he and two friends had 20 years earlier, and after recalling the incident he was motivated to call his college buddies and reflect on their observation. 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 to the East. Pocono Record sports writer Mike Kuhns wrote a great piece on Oct. 14, "Does the mountain lion roam PA?" 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Heres What the Data Says. You be the judge. Florida is the only state on the east coast with a breeding population of mountain lions. You've got a mountain lion story or photo? Known as the Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania, there are four trails that lead to the cascades from the Bushkill Falls trailhead, each ranging in . It has the color of a mountain lion, but the long tail appears to be missing. 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. There is also a small population of cougars in Florida. So, couldn't that same argument apply to pumas in the Northeast? Caribou remains, dated by radiocarbon in excess of 10,000 B.C. 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. What does a Puma (Mountain Lion) look like on a Game Camera? "I thought I had a sighting in the late '90s," Delaware Water Gap National Recreation park ranger Chris Kross said. If we don't see it, it doesn't exist. Sadly, the hunting guidelines for cougars in Idaho are lax, with 400-600 cats being killed each year. And this genetic mix has been recognized, and the Florida puma is still protected. I believe them. So how or why could there be a conspiracy? I have received about two dozen reports during that time, including one game camera image that still looks very credible to me. Is there a Mountain Lion Conspiracy? Outdoor adventures abound, and so do our fabulous shopping and restaurants. Like Rocky, Nia is declawed. (What is meant by "heads" is not clear.). One of the three branches or clans of the Lenape Tribe at the end of the 17th century was known as the Wolf (Minsi). See also: The last of three glaciations covered 30% of Pennsylvania, including much of the Poconos, from around 20,000-10,000 B.C. Newspapers carried stories in 1956 about hunters supposedly seeing and killing wolves in Pike and Monroe Counties. do I get an immediate, 'Oh yeah!' Wyoming has a historically stable population of mountain lions, but recent drops in numbers have caused some to worry. Are Mountain Lions in Missouri Making a Comeback? The last of three glaciations covered 30% of Pennsylvania, including much of the Poconos, from around 20,000-10,000 B.C. I was heading up the road and I saw an animal with a long tail.". The head of the puma is small in comparision to a house cat when compared to the entire body. 2023 www.poconorecord.com. I hope no one ever shoots a puma to prove their existence here, but I hope someone gets a great photo, of the cat, of a road-kill, of tracks, and that I see it. Any Truth 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. The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos / p o k n o z /, are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania.They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the north, Wyoming Valley and the Coal Region to the west, and the Lehigh Valley to the south. Would these ridges be declared off-limits for hunting? Goggling Eastern Puma brings up other web sites, however, with varying levels of professionalism or credibility. Hunting is legal, but the use of dogs was banned in 1996. A dark brown puma, backlighted by a strong sun, could appear all black, or very dark, and he accepted that. They include a reported attack on horses at a farm near Dillsburg, York County, that Foster thinks may be legitimate. The rocky habitat that covers much of the state is perfect for these ambush predators, especially since humans dont inhabit much of the land. On a recent stifling morning in Adams County, the 290-pound mountain lion with perfect bone structure is ignoring the raw chicken breast and pork chops a handler tossed into his pen. I've know of reports since 1973, in Cooke Forest, the heart of a lot of Pa. wilderness. Are there Mountain Lions (Pumas, Cougars) in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic States? I don't want to seem like a nut case here, but I must ask this question and you'll soon understand why? Would my mountain ridge be declared 'Critical Habitat' for the puma? There's a whole world to learn about and Colby is content to spend his life learning as much as he can about it! They mostly live in the far western Trans-Pecos region of the state, where they can freely roam 50,000 to 80,000 acres of land. I haven't seen any reports like that.". As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. More Questions about Pumas in Pennsylvania. They know what they saw, regardless of what the facts say, and they know they saw a puma. The Asa Packer Mansion, built in the year 1861, is a historic house museum. Both were a threat to the farmer and family who carved a home in the ancient wilderness of the Poconos. However, it is clearly a mountain lion, and I'm presenting this poor image as a baseline reference for anyone recording a mountain lion on a game camera, or seeing one. Would that declaration close that ridge to hunting? 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. There are also big swaths of thick of forests in parts of the state. Martinelli said that if there were mountain lions in Pennsylvania, there would be more sightings of them. It is almost safe to say that the panther has in these parts become extinct, Goodrich wrote. What does a Mountain Lion look like on a game camera? 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. It was definitely a mountain lion, and it had a big buck, white-tailed deer in its jaws. I've done this myself once, in Tanzania, when I saw a black house cat that I thought was a black leopard! The life cycle then repeats itself. The reintroduction of mountain lions into South Dakota is one of the great wins of modern conservation. If so, what would happen to the hunting industry in all of these states? I don't know if a Game Commission authority has actually said this or not, but people I've spoken to have reported this. In all those hours I never saw a coyote, bear, or bobcat, and yet all live in my area. The northeastern U.S. population is thought to have disappeared in the 1930s. And, some may be escaped or illegally released pets. Currently, mountain lions seem to be making a comeback in regard to their historic range. There also were camels, sloth and hyena, which migrated elsewhere. 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. "It's fall bow-hunting season soon," he said. Caribou meat apparently was part of their diet. For example, leopards and jaguars, normally spotted cats, have a melanistic color morph, the 'black panther,' the black leopard or black jaguar. There is a big community of mountain lion enthusiasts across the Northeast convinced that the animals still exist in breeding populations. Still, people say they know what they saw out there. 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. One sighting I give complete belief in was from a friend who told me a puma crossed right in front of their vehicle, and paused on the berm for a few seconds, at a distant of ten yards or less. This is only hearsay, however, since I'm only going on their stories. Over the last few months several people have responded to this question with reports of their own. The state of Arizona is home to a large, stable population of mountain lions. Many of the reports I receive are extremely credible. The head of the puma is small in comparision to a house cat when compared to the entire body. Confirmed cougar sightings have increased in the Midwest and Great Lakes states in recent years.". Interestingly, the US Fish and Wildllife Service has declared the Eastern Puma extinct, except for the Florida population known as the Florida panther. Mountain Lion Reports Possibly, but it seems unlikely that enough would have been released or had escaped to make for a viable population. They are there to help us. Suppose, instead of declaring the puma, or Eastern mountain lion, extinct, the USFWS actually recognized the existence of the cat as a wild, breeding species. Obviously, other pumas must be about, and the series of ridges extending north and east and west from my location could all be included as critical habitat as well. Are the various States guilty of essentially the same thing? That's true. ", (PennLive has investigated many reports of mountain lions, and other mystery creatures, and has found no confirming evidence, including in a reported Berks County sighting on January 8. Something to consider, even though we all trust the government. Nevertheless, I put up a MOULTRIE game camera -- a brand that I've had tremendous satisfaction with -- at the carcass, hoping that scavengers would visit. There are an estimated 3,000 - 7,000 Mountain lions in Colorado. Please keep scrolling - ALL the Puma posts are included. Although size can be difficult to determine in the field, a puma will be three or four times larger than a bobcat. Since mountain lions are the top predators (unlike most other states with grizzly bears), they have a well-developed population. The Golden State has one of the largest populations of mountain lions in the country. The State Museum of Pennsylvania, in Harrisburg, displays a taxidermy mount of a mountain lion in glass case, with the notation, "This lion, found near Hawk Mountain in Berks County around 1871, is the last native mountain lion known to have been shot in Pennsylvania. 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. 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. Geologist Dr. John Yolton made the identification. Would a puma then qualify as a native species? Reports generally go uninvestigated by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which discounts them as mistaken identities, illegal pets escaped or released and outright fabrications. Ashley Catherine Fontones, Pocono Record. Let's say the facts indicate that there have been a lot of 'pet' pumas, and many of these escaped. 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. Mountain lion populations struggle to outpace the high hunting limits. I can't dismiss the eye-witnesses I've interviewed. 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 . Are there pumas, or mountain lions, in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic States? Did they migrate south from Canada? All rights reserved (About Us). Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Imagination? Colorado is the perfect habitat for mountain lions. 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. Bobcats tend to be darker brown, with lighter belly fur and spots while mountain lions tend to be more uniform brown, tawny color. Most nature magazines state whether the photos were taken "under controlled conditions" rather than in the wild.). Mountain lions (cougars, pumas, and more) are among the top predators that live in the United States. Transient males have been sighted as far east as New York! "I'm proud to know her," Murray said of the tiger, "but I wish I didn't.". Mountain lions weigh 90-160 pounds, while bobcats weigh 20-30 pounds. "People think they can get them declawed and that they're safe, but they still have teeth.". Are they all the product of the off-spring of pumas that escaped their owners or were released? While there have been no confirmed occurrences of mountain lions in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, dozens . Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. I believe that the folks that are reporting, in detail, their sightings are faced with a similar situation. 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. "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. ? She also houses a bobcat named Nia she took in from a couple who couldn't handle her. 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. When he told me this, he commented on how an experience like the one he and his friends had just is not forgotten. At the end of the last Ice Age, many animals in Pennsylvania died out. WATCH: Sharks biting alligators, the most epic lion battles, and MUCH more. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. He also published a follow-up on Oct. 15 with the same mountain lion-deer hoax photo, as well as personal stories from several local residents who claim they've seen mountain lions in the Poconos. One might argue that the eastern puma is extinct, but that does not mean that there are not pumas (mountain lions, cougars) in the east. Cougar Network tracks mountain lion expansion from the western U.S. to the east. For many who have believed to have seen a cougar in the wilds of the Poconos, these arguments might be less than convincing. Although a large proportion of the Lenape Nation was dispersed far from their ancestral homelands in the 18th century, colonial settlers and their descendants struggled to live in this region with wolves and cougars inhabiting the forests. "They are very strong animals," she said. Can so many people be so wrong? 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. He notes how over the millennia, the region was inhabited by humans, only to be depopulated by migration brought on by the search of food due to a fickle climate, war or epidemic. On that, I've had emails sent with game trail photo attachments, or killed pumas, supposedly shot in Pennsylvania, but these were hoaxes. They often would catch sheep in broad daylight. 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. Consider that the endangered Florida puma has mixed genes. Mountain lions have killed humans in the wild, though sightings and encounters are rare even in the American West and Canada. No one needs to panic.". About six months ago I posted the question, Are there Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? 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 that cat killed on a highway in Milford, Connecticut, in June 2011. 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.

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