Pennsylvania large cats ?

Good chance you saw what you thought you saw despite all efforts of college educated environmentalist who assures you it was merely swamp gas.
 

I also got a critter here taking out dogs and scaring the hell out of the rest of them... (Middle TN.) Found some large cat tracks but I believe there bobcat tracks. Whatever it is was close to house last night raising hell but the dogs will NOT engage. Finally went out and fired off 3 quick rounds from a .22 mag. Everything calmed down.
 

Lots of big kitties out there. We have an occasional sighting here. There are 2 million in this city, cats have come all the way from Mexico(150 miles) and game wardens say it is because of the drought and the availability of food here. Be careful, not sure about baiting it. If you do I would stay inside. But hell, you only live once, if you survive, think of the cool, can't top this story, you can post here...
 

Good chance you saw what you thought you saw despite all efforts of college educated environmentalist who assures you it was merely swamp gas.
Ole lady did not fart near me today can not be swamp gas .....
 

As an animal control officer for our town, we get all kinds of calls. The big thing in our area now are coyotes and coy dogs. We have a huge population of them. Right behind our farm is a large wooded area, and you can hear them yipping all night, and you can really tell when they are after something.

I hear ya whammy...At night,I'll get coyotes and pups yipping anytime, and wolves if within my voice distance. But, when you hear a cougars way higher pitched "scream" in the night (female in heat calling for a male)...you know it, and never forget it! ;)
 

found a other foot print .... dam it is cold out tonight and i broke the sd card for my fone
 

found a other foot print .... dam it is cold out tonight and i broke the sd card for my fone

Better get back inside nsdq, before the ole lady thinks 'your the predator'!!! LOL.
 

Death Waits in The Dark...... Night Stalkers Don't Quit
 

Without reading every post... My cousins lives in carbon county pa. They recently claimed to encounter one of these cats. No pictures! ..cat was on the run!

A friend of mines -friend claims this picture with his game camera from the Poconos..
ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1420247806.831970.jpg

They are known to travel vast distances for mates/ food.
 

Without reading every post... My cousins lives in carbon county pa. They recently claimed to encounter one of these cats. No pictures! ..cat was on the run!

A friend of mines -friend claims this picture with his game camera from the Poconos..
View attachment 1101128

They are known to travel vast distances for mates/ food.

Bang on!...True! Don't kid ourselves, they are there and traveling.
 

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Do they like cat nip ?
 

It's kind'a funny...

You have many people who will say it's not possible to have a large cat.. they're not native.. you had to have seen a bobcat, dog, or it must have been a coyote!
Well, city boy.. what makes you think I need to prove anything to you? Just because you haven't seen one doesn't means they're not here!:laughing7:
 

From what I could find it appears that the Eastern Cougar is extinct, the last "native" one in PA was killed in the 1870's and the entire population wiped out by the 1930's. Both the PFG and USWFS contend there are no breeding populations in PA. It's legal to own a cougar as a pet in PA. There are bobcats in PA and they are common in some areas.

However there are confirmed reports of cougars in several Eastern States including PA. Most of these are ones who escaped captivity but there are confirmed cases of Western Cougars found throughout the Northeast.

Long story short, there are cougars in PA, but they are not native.


No "lion," invasive species always provide a good source for conspiracy theories - Republican Herald

No "lion," invasive species always provide a good source for conspiracy theories

At the recent Schuylkill Conservation District meeting at Sweet Arrow Lake, PGC wildlife conservation officer Matt Belding was asked about the presence of lions and the agency's role in their presence. As for the presence of lions, the answer can be "yes," "probably," or "maybe," but the answer to the question about the PGC releasing them is a resounding "no."

"No, the Pennsylvania Game Commission doesn't release mountain lions," Belding said. "Typically, when one is seen, it is the result of people having purchased one out of state, then, they either escape or, after they become too big for them to handle, are released illegally into the wild."

Wild Cat Caught On Tape In Western Pa. | www.wpxi.com

Wild Cat Caught On Tape In Western Pa.

They managed to catch a few seconds of video and showed Channel 11 the tape. The picture is shaky but startling.

Channel 11 talked to the wildlife officer who also saw the tape. He said it looks like a mountain lion but he can't be sure. Another neighbor said he saw what looked like a mountain lion while in a tree stand in nearby woods on the first day of archery season.

Cougar Reports on the Rise in Eastern U.S.

Cougar Reports on the Rise in Eastern U.S.

At one time, spotting a cougar in the eastern United States ranked alongside an encounter with Bigfoot or a UFO. But over the years, the rise in cougar tales has sparked an interest in wildlife officials and cougar enthusiasts alike.

Northeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concludes eastern cougar extinct

Although the eastern cougar has been on the endangered species list since 1973, its existence has long been questioned. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) conducted a formal review of the available information and, in a report issued today, concludes the eastern cougar is extinct and recommends the subspecies be removed from the endangered species list.

“We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar,” said the Service’s Northeast Region Chief of Endangered Species Martin Miller. “However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.”

Reports of cougars observed in the wild examined during the review process described cougars of other subspecies, often South American subspecies, that had been held in captivity and had escaped or been released to the wild, as well as wild cougars of the western United States subspecies that had migrated eastward to the Midwest.

Long Way from Home - NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation

Wild western cougar travels through New York

When tissue samples from the Connecticut Cougar matched the same DNA structure of the Black Hills cougar population, things got interesting. The lab continued to compare the Connecticut Cougar's DNA with samples from scat, blood and hair collected at locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin where their cougar was tracked. The results? Samples exactly matched the cougar that passed through Lake George, and the one that was killed on the Wilbur Cross Parkway that early June morning. They were all the same animal.

This means that the cougar first spotted in Champlin, Minnesota, traveled a distance of more than 1,055 miles to Milford-a new straight-line record for observed cougar movement. Considering it originated from a cougar population in the Black Hills, this cougar likely traveled a distance of nearly 1,800 miles!

Northeast Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Eastern cougar Questions and answers about the five-year review
March 2011


The review concludes that the eastern cougar is extinct. Although cougars are seen occasionally in the East, no evidence exists that they are the subspecies known as eastern cougars.

Even small populations of cougars, such as those in Florida and North and South Dakota, leave substantial physical evidence (tracks, photographs, scat, hair, genetic samples, road mortalities, cougars shot or caught in traps).

Service biologists assembled 108 records dating from 1900 to 2010 with a high level of confirmation that the described animals were cougars. After careful examination, the biologists concluded all reported cougars were animals that escaped or were released from captivity or that dispersed from the western United States.

There is no evidence that a breeding population of cougars occurs in the eastern United States or eastern Canada other than those in Florida (Florida panther).

Eastern Cougar Extinct: Mountain Lion Declared Gone From East U.S.

Eastern Cougar Extinct: Mountain Lion Declared Gone From East U.S.

The wildlife service said Wednesday it confirmed 108 sightings between 1900 and 2010, but that these animals either escaped or were released from captivity, or migrated from western states to the Midwest.
 

If the tail sweeps down then curves up you probably saw what you think you saw. Just because they say mountain lions and etc aren't in certain areas doesn't make it fact. Just about any animal can be any where now days, thanks to people.

I live around some crazy animal filled woods, and I'm still not sure what all we have here. I see road kill of things I didn't know we had, so then I add it to my"know we have" list...
LOL
Our porcupines are as big as small bears.See them only on roadside dead. We have those huge rams that can literally run up and down a hill that is what seems to be absolutely vertical. Only seen 2 of those in the 12 years I've been here. The list goes on... LOL got a surprise BITE(and not just a nip) by a stupid fish in the lake, while sitting on some rocks... scared the hell outta me and made me get up so fast...
You never know what you have there, animals usually stay away from people as best they can.
I saw a RED FOX dead on the side of a road, and EVERYBODY argued with me that we don't have RED FOX here.
Few weeks later... MY MOM saw a RED FOX some where else! And, YES, I know the difference between RED fox and GREY fox!! LOL
Put out wildlife cams!! You'll be amazed what you see!!!
Oh, and YES, we have cougars here too. One was found dead in the school yard close by.
 

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It hasn't been that long ago, every wildlife office east of the Mississippi River stated.. "no large cats in the east".
And now the same people are saying.. "well, they're not native.. must be western or pets?".:laughing7:

I have only seem the black panther twice in my 66 years living in the Southern Appalachians.. but, I had the rare chance to examine
a cougar one spring morning a few years back that had been shot... on Signal Mountain... yes, Tennessee!
 

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