A typical home range is around 150 square miles for adult males and 50 square miles for adult females in our region. "Likewise, I'm not aware of any escapes from captive facilities in my time here. For many who have believed to have seen a cougar in the wilds of the Poconos, these arguments might be less than convincing. Would these ridges be declared off-limits for hunting? 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. The 6 best hikes in the Poconos Mountains - Lonely Planet Mountain Lion Population (In Each U.S. State) - Wildlife Informer Mountain lions, Goodrich wrote, were more dreaded than wolves as the cat could climb over any fence that could be built. WATCH: Sharks biting alligators, the most epic lion battles, and MUCH more. About six months ago I posted the question, Are there Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? Like Rocky, Nia is declawed. Colby is a freelance writer from Charlotte, North Carolina. Wyoming has a historically stable population of mountain lions, but recent drops in numbers have caused some to worry. Reports of a mountain lion have come from several residents of Hemlock Farms who were hiking on. The next day, the photo disappeared from the site. The head of the puma is small in comparision to a house cat when compared to the entire body. 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 recent alleged sighting in South Abington Township, Lackawanna County, had Facebook groups abuzz. Does the mountain lion roam Pa? - Pocono Record Only when I reviewed the images on my laptop did I discover that I had a mountain lion! The Mountain Lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail. 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. 2023 www.poconorecord.com. 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. What you wouldn't expect to find here anymore is a mountain lion. 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). Who knows? He's sitting in a plastic doghouse, paws crossed, amber eyes locked on the two men ticking him off by their mere presence out beyond the fence. 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. The Golden State has one of the largest populations of mountain lions in the country. I have received about two dozen reports during that time, including one game camera image that still looks very credible to me. And, some may be escaped or illegally released pets. I Googled "Pocono mountain lion" and there it was the same photo, except the caption claimed that it was taken in Oklahoma, not Pennsylvania, and various posted comments asserted that the photo was manipulated. 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). 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. Each year, over tha past five, I've spoken with at least one person who swears they personally saw a puma in this state. All of the above are Mountain Lions, or Pumas, or Cougars. They've been extinct in the eastern part of North America for more than a century. That summer, a team from the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg excavated the nearly complete skeleton of the ancient elephant, the first of its kind found in the Commonwealth. 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?' 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 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. DCNR gave the following as examples: the saber-tooth cat; a small, three-toed horse; the Pleistocene beaver, and the mastodon. It has long been popular with honeymooners, but today the Poconos are a popular destination for families, skiers, adventure seekers, NASCAR fans, and those from urban areas around New England, New York City, Philadelphia . Here's an example: A man is holding a dead eastern diamondback rattlesnake, which was found in North Carolina and measured more than 9 feet long and weighed 95 pounds. I have received about two dozen reports during that time, including one. 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. I usually follow-up on these reports and, via email or phone conversations, I receive more details. "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. On that, I've had emails sent with game trail photo attachments, or killed pumas, supposedly shot in Pennsylvania, but these were hoaxes. About half of the state of Montana is ideal for mountain lions, primarily in her western and central regions. Foster said mountain lions and bobcats could not breed. Albinos are often very light sensitive, and they certainly are conspicuous, and most do not live very long. And this genetic mix has been recognized, and the Florida puma is still protected. There are, from time to time, eyewitness accounts from hunters or hikers who claim to have seen the cat. Since mountain lions are the top predators (unlike most other states with grizzly bears), they have a well-developed population. Possibly, but it seems unlikely that enough would have been released or had escaped to make for a viable population. do I get an immediate, 'Oh yeah!' In 2015, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed near the site where the mastodon was found. 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. 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? I've know of reports since 1973, in Cooke Forest, the heart of a lot of Pa. wilderness. What does a Mountain Lion look like on a game camera? After all, skeptics often suggest that puma sightings are just deer sightings, so it would be logical to worry that a hunter might shoot an endangered puma, mistaking it for a brown deer. And yet today the debate continues: Are there mountain lions in Pennsylvania? Consider that the endangered Florida puma has mixed genes. Colorado is the perfect habitat for mountain lions. 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. Caribou meat apparently was part of their diet. In the map above, I collected data from the state and on the federal level to find state parks . Bo Ottman is a landscaper in Connecticut who founded an . Melanism is the reverse, where there is an abundance of dark or black pigmentation. Would that declaration close that ridge to hunting? 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. 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! "It was in Worthington State Forest just across the Delaware River from Smithfield Beach). Some may also be kept illicitly as pets, which would quickly become a problem as the cat matures. All of the above images are of bobcats. Confirmed cougar sightings have increased in the Midwest and Great Lakes states in recent years.". An animal's coat can stray far from the norm. 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. Mountain lions are 7-9 feet, while bobcats are 3 feet long. While there have been no confirmed occurrences of mountain lions in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, dozens . Pocono Mountains - Travel guide at Wikivoyage He said he'd never forget the sighting, but it was only when he saw another, a few months ago, in daylight, from his cabin, that he decided it was time to tell someone. 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. At the end of the last Ice Age, many animals in Pennsylvania died out. A mastodon's skull was first located in Marshalls Creek, Monroe County, on July 5, 1968. I've seen about 20 mountain lions, or pumas, in the field, but all but 2 were in Chile. But no one that I've communicated with had these preconceptions, and seeing what they saw was a complete surprise. Colorado and California have the highest estimated populations of mountain lions in the United States. This will be one of your best identification marks, along with size. Packer Hill Ave. Jim Thorpe, PA 18229. While it would seem impossible to confuse the two after seeing them in person, Foster said many of the sightings are in the dark, from roadways and trail cams, with bodies half-concealed. Apparently, this picture was really making the rounds. 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. Why do I advocate manual exposure so avidly? The last documented sighting of an eastern cougar was one killed in Maine in 1938. Now, forty years ago coyotes were rare or almost nonexistent in Pennsylvania, and had had that same sighting back then, when coyotes were thought not to exist within the state we would have had the 'facts' to doubt what we saw. 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. The northeastern U.S. population is thought to have disappeared in the 1930s. This is not a Pennsylvania puma! Mountain lion killed in Connecticut was on the opposite side of Pennsylvania a year ago, Is it real? They mostly live in the far western Trans-Pecos region of the state, with about 50,000 to 80,000 acres of suitable land currently being used by the cat. Imagination? All of these forests are, with few exceptions, open to hunting, and hunting is a very important industry in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Who knows? 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.". At one time this fact almost resulted in this cat not being protected, since it wasn't a pure strain. 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. In Tennessee, the most likely places you would find them would be in the forest. Is there a correct position for the upright on a Wimberley actionhead. If it were, it would be listed. The other three images are from my file, selected to most closely approximate the pose of the cat from the game camera. "There hasn't been one solid piece of proof to believe they are here. 25 Best Things to Do in The Pocono Mountains Area (for 2023) 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. Hunting is legal, but the use of dogs was banned in 1996. A Mountain Lion Cover Up Features Writer Micaela Hood is signing off with the Pocono Record after five years of covering arts, culture, entertainment and sports in northeastern . Hopefully, we'll see the real thing. "It's fall bow-hunting season soon," he said. (National Park Service). "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. With healthy populations and strong conservation programs, however, they seem to be pushing back east. Big cats in Pennsylvania: mountain lions or bobcats? - Pocono Record Interestingly, the US Fish and Wildllife Service has declared the Eastern Puma extinct, except for the Florida population known as the Florida panther. Just take your pick of all these incredible Pocono lake house rentals or just a Pocono cabin for rent, in luxury of course! 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'd suspect it would still be considered very rare, after all, it was thought to be extinct. Are there pumas, or mountain lions, in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic States? Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. A brief look, yes, but no question we saw a coyote. Note the size of the tail, the pointed ears, the speckled coat, the basic lack of white underneath. Me? I'm a photographer, yet I've never had a chance to snap a photograph of one of these bears. Cougar Network tracks mountain lion expansion from the western U.S. to the east. 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. Of course, the writer's comments were hearsay, but it does make sense. It also mentioned that someone raising a mountain lion without a license may either have let it go when it became too large to handle, or that the animal had escaped. Unless I am only dealing with a lot of delusional people with little judgment, something is out there. Woolly mammoth bones were discovered in Bradford County in 1983. DNR: Fish & Wildlife: Mountain Lion Ashley Catherine Fontones, Pocono Record. 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. Mountain lions live almost everywhere in the state of Washington. Are there Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? 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. And book one of these Poconos cabins rentals for the best outdoor access to these activities. Adults are a uniform tan or tawny in color, with a white or cream-colored chin, undersides and inner legs. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is always open to review evidence, but to date only hoaxes have crossed the PGC. Only once has anyone later determined that they had misidentified the cat, seeing a bobcat and not a mountain lion. Why is bat photography so difficult? It has the color of a mountain lion, but the long tail appears to be missing. 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. Every year we receive a few similar reports from hikers, hunters or other outdoor enthusiasts. The first settlers kept sheep to supply their household with wool. 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. Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. 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. 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.). Would my mountain ridge be declared 'Critical Habitat' for the puma? In all those hours I never saw a coyote, bear, or bobcat, and yet all live in my area. Can so many people be so wrong? I believe them. A bobcat gives you a warm, that-kind-of-looks-like-my-cat-but-slightly-bigger feeling. No one needs to panic.". I want to believe they're here, but I'm having some trouble. A law was passed March 10, 1806, requiring the county to pay the person producing the scalp of a full-grown wolf or cougar, $8, and for the scalp of a young whelp or cub, $4. A few could, perhaps, be mistaken idenity. It is almost safe to say that the panther has in these parts become extinct, Goodrich wrote. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. In prior interviews with the Game Commission, the suggestion was made to this writer that what many people may actually be seeing is a bobcat, perhaps in less than ideal circumstances. I was heading up the road and I saw an animal with a long tail.". You've got a mountain lion story or photo? I believe Kross fully, but I wanted to hear more. "I'm proud to know her," Murray said of the tiger, "but I wish I didn't.". Have all of those who have seen a puma really seen a bobcat? Mountain lions weigh 90-160 pounds, while bobcats weigh 20-30 pounds. Geologist Dr. John Yolton made the identification. The Game Commission concluded they were coyotes. This happens usually around the 18-month mark. 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. In captivity mountain, lions can live to be about 20 years old. The State cites that there are no road-kills, and in a heavily trafficed state like Pennsylvania there should be kills. 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. 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. And how many would let them go, or provide an opportunity for escaping? 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. Caribou remains, dated by radiocarbon in excess of 10,000 B.C. While there have been no confirmed occurrences of mountain lions in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, dozens of sincere reports of sightings and tracks and even more hoaxed reports emerge across the state each year. Furthermore, a different set of photos showed a "mountain lion" dragging a deer into the woods in Bradford County. 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. Where they always here as a relic population? The cat was far enough away that I couldn't get a size reference, and I believed the cat was further away than it actually was. In January, the U.S. Heres What the Data Says. Luxury Cabin Rentals: Pocono Mountain Getaways | Glamping Hub The life cycle then repeats itself. Pa Mountain lion, cougar, or big cat in bucks county Pennsylvania Granted, the image is not great, and I used some Photoshop adjustment layers to enhance the image, making it a bit easier to see. There had been 17 other mastodon finds in Pennsylvania up to 1968, but all were fragmentary. 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. If you can figure out how to travel far back in time for even a day, get lots of wildlife photos, as the rest of us might never believe your story. It had been captured in Florida, and was to be released. Erosion from glacial melt and violence glaciers did to the land left a great litter of boulders, rocks, clay and lakes covering today's landscape.

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