are there mountain lions in the poconos

Although in captivity, they can live much longer. Let's see a clear photo, or a carcass or something. Would my mountain ridge be declared 'Critical Habitat' for the puma? Heres What the Data Says. If you're interested in this, please pass on this link, and if you see a cat, please let me know! On some investigations, Foster has teamed up with Stacey Griffiths, who started the Central PA Mountain Lion Sightings page earlier this year. They have almost been killed off a few times, but conservation efforts have helped to keep their numbers stable. 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. They know what they saw, regardless of what the facts say, and they know they saw a puma. Does the mountain lion roam Pa? - Pocono Record 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. While there have been no confirmed occurrences of mountain lions in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s, dozens . Recently, on a back road in Pennsylvania, a friend and I had our first sighting of a coyote in Pennsylvania. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Among other uses, the tax was levied "for destroying wolves, foxes, heads and crows." The last native mountain lion known to be killed in Pennsylvania is on display in the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. Bobcats tend to be darker brown, with lighter belly fur and spots while mountain lions tend to be more uniform brown, tawny color. The state of Arizona is home to a large, stable population of 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. 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. Joseph Pugliese 2.2K views 7 years ago Beautiful Bobcat in our yard as our. More Questions about Pumas in Pennsylvania 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. Here are the 15 US States That Have Mountain Lions. 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. Is there a Mountain Lion Conspiracy? 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. Please keep scrolling - ALL the Puma posts are included. 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. In 2015, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed near the site where the mastodon was found. Kross only saw the animal for a second, but it made a believer out of him. 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 . He also noted that if the cat was here, wouldn't they be reproducing and increasing in population by now? ? 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. A dark brown puma, backlighted by a strong sun, could appear all black, or very dark, and he accepted that. As the latest hoaxed photo of a mountain lion supposedly killed in Pennsylvania died a slow death on Facebook yesterday, the head of an organization tracking the eastern movements of the big cats was preparing a presentation for a Pennsylvania audience tonight. "From people that I trust have had visual sightings, they've seen mountain lions.". 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. (National Park Service). Most of the native mountain lions live in Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park, but humans rarely ever see them due to their secretive nature. Additionally, California banned the hunting of cougars back in 1972, encouraging population growth. 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. Are mountain lions on their way to Pennsylvania? All of the above images are of bobcats. One man, in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, had seen one, at night, about 25 years ago. Packer Hill Ave. Jim Thorpe, PA 18229. 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. 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. Pocono Record's Micaela Hood moves on to Lehigh Valley Public Media I want to believe they're here, but I'm having some trouble. The head of the puma is small in comparision to a house cat when compared to the entire body. This is actually a good thing, as genetic isolation generally weakens a species. Goggling Eastern Puma brings up other web sites, however, with varying levels of professionalism or credibility. Encouraged by the bounties, settlers waged war on these perceived beasts. The last native mountain lion known to be killed in Pennsylvania is on display in the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg. However, if it doesn't exist, and if someone saw one, wouldn't there be a worry that it was a dangerous escapee? The bones were found perfectly preserved. You've got a mountain lion story or photo? Murray said Rocky was emaciated and chained when she found him at a private zoo. Mountain Lions - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) While the chances that I'll ever see a puma in Pennsylvania myself are virtually zero, I'm always on the alert -- for the bobcat I've never seen in Pa., for a fisher, bear, deer, red salamander, toad, or snake, and yes, I'm always hoping that I too will become one of those who saw something that officially cannot exist within the state, a puma I know I saw but, of course, could not have! The state of Texas is home to many mountain lion populations, but the numbers are incredibly hard to find. Who knows? Still, people say they know what they saw out there. 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. Are there pumas, or mountain lions, in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic States? (570) 325-3229. On the other hand, there are probably thousands of game cameras covering water holes and game trails throughout Pennsylvania, and to my knowledge no one has yet recorded a puma. 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. The image in the Upper Left was from a Game Camera, sent to me by a friend. Claws 'N' Paws Animal Park in Lake Ariel has two. 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. Mountain Lion Reports Others would like to see some scientific proof. A bobcat gives you a warm, that-kind-of-looks-like-my-cat-but-slightly-bigger feeling. I can't dismiss the eye-witnesses I've interviewed. Over time, cats that had been released in Florida, probably pets that outlived their welcome, bred with the native puma, and their genes mingled. Never has this been more accurate than in today's digital, computerized world. On that, I've had emails sent with game trail photo attachments, or killed pumas, supposedly shot in Pennsylvania, but these were hoaxes. One of these days, though, I'll get one that won't be, and I hope that will be soon. Officially extinct, mountain lions still haunt the Adirondacks Pocono Mountains - Travel guide at Wikivoyage Mysterious big cat caught on security camera in Clarks Summit, Pa. 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! 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. 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. "People think they can get them declawed and that they're safe, but they still have teeth.". But the point of this article isn't whether or not mountain lions exist in Pennsylvania or the Poconos. Most, quite honestly, don't know or can't believe or accept what they saw, they really can't believe their eyes. 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. Ironically, I almost deleted the image, as on the small camera LCD monitor the cat was small and I thought that it was just another deer that moved along the stream. I have received about two dozen reports during that time, including one game camera image that still looks very credible to me. The Pocono Mountains are . Are there Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania? Mountain lions that are looking for new breeding areas are known as transient and are almost always males. Pocono Record sports writer Mike Kuhns wrote a great piece on Oct. 14, "Does the mountain lion roam PA?" Mountain Lion (Puma concolor) - Texas What equipment do we take in the field? Do Mountain Lions Attack Humans? The story behind our new web 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. redo these pages to match the new web site But that's not Reports of a mountain lion have come from several residents of Hemlock Farms who were hiking on. All of the above are Mountain Lions, or Pumas, or Cougars. It will happen eventually. 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.