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Mountain Lion in NY

AaronBlaine

By AaronBlaine,
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WNYBuckHunter
WNYBuckHunter

Nobody discounts that. Heres the kicker though, the one time there actually was one in NY, it was well documented, unlike the plethora of claims that happen every year.

bkln
bkln

How many times do I have to tell you, we don't have mountain lions in NY but we have plenty of cougars...and they are everywhere, just walk into any bar on Friday night, telling ya, everywhere....LOL

Pygmy
Pygmy

My Dad saw one in the road in the town of Woodhull about 30 years ago.. I trust his judgement as you trust your father's. I also think he was mistaken. A good friend of mine who is a retired State

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wdswtr Newbie

wdswtr

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that is a good example of a picture that could confuse alot of people. With not knowing some difference between such animals I can see how the claims could run in the direction of the "I want to believe, therefore I seen" mountain lion fans. The first thing that tipped the first photo off is the lack of any significant tail and the ears, tuffs seen or not. Those are not mountain lion ears nor is there a mountain lion tail on that thing.

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growalot Newbie

growalot

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sue_andrew01.jpg

There are many people in NYS that have and breed these cats Servals and Savannas ...and they come in different shades of spotting....from a distance you can imagine how one could get confused....even though they are very expensive they do get let loose when unmanageable....NYS fine underground pet trades...you'd be surprised.....they are beautiful...but powerful...wouldn't want an adult one in my house during breeding season...or arounds a small child

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KenAxe-7 Newbie

KenAxe-7

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My Dad saw one in the road in the town of Woodhull about 30 years ago..

I trust his judgement as you trust your father's.

I also think he was mistaken.

A good friend of mine who is a retired State Trooper showed me a picture of a black one with a radio collar on it... I looked at it and nodded...It was SO obviuously a big housecat wearing a red collar..Somebody's pet.

Sometimes very honest folk's judgement is not accurate...

Shucks...If my judgement was always accurate, I'd still be happily married...<< grin>>...

There is more to the story than just him seeing one, he was very close to it and says there is no doubt/. How many long-tailed bobcats or lynx running around?

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BizCT Grand Master

BizCT

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Simple as this, PROVE IT.

If he was very close to it, he should have walked up to where the lion was and took a bunch of pictures of its tracks with something to show size comparison. Even a 6month or older kitten lion track is much bigger than a giant bobcat track.

Edited by Biz-R-OWorld
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lionsandtigers Newbie

lionsandtigers

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I have posted this before on other sites but will repeat it here. I will first let you know that I am not a flake. I am a well educated researcher who lacks the imagination to conjure up stories. I am also not a big nature person. I don't go out of my way to spot wildlife. I did not know a thing about mountain lions or any other large cats-nor did I know there was any controversy about them- a year ago. I am writing this to let people know about it but won't defend my observations to those who challenge the veracity of my report. There is no point to doing so.

In November I was heading south on 81. Soon after the Whitney Point exit I saw something in the distance on the left shoulder of the road that I could not make sense of. I thought it could be some large stuffed animal/toy but very large. I made no sense to me. As i got closer I still could not understand what it was because it did not coincide with anything I'd ever seen before. It was lying on its side with its 4 legs facing the road and the spine facing the opposing traffic. In color it was similar to a red cat (which is really orangish tan in color). It had a long rope like tail that did not taper (all domestic cats I've had had tails that tapered towards the end). The tail was long and it extended around the legs, in a semicircle) toward mid torso. I think the legs were drawn up a bit-rather than fully extended. It had what I processed as a very heavy looking round head with some dark marking that reminded me of raccoon markings-as if they were written onto the face. I later realized what probably gave the appearance of heaviness was the density of the fur. It was a very pretty/sweet face. The face was round with an almost double chin look to it-not oblong like the mountain lion pictures I have seen. It was also about 3-4 times the size of a domestic cat.

I was on my way to work and would have been in trouble had I stopped. But, I did call the police to report it once I left the highway. I later called to talk with the dispatcher who said she was so curious about it she went back during her lunch hour but it was gone. She speculated someone picked it up. In retrospect that made no sense either because I would have assumed she would have dispatched a crew to pick it up when I called-in which case it would obviously be gone when she got there. I asked her what she thought it was and wrote down all the animals she named. Red/tan thick but not long fur long tail. Then I started to read about them. The match was clearly a mountain lion-except that the face was round not oblong. But, young mountain lions apparently have round faces.

Since then I have been trying to figure it out. I've posted about the sighting to see if anyone else saw it. I even called taxedermy places to see if anyone brought a mountain lion in to be stuffed. I asked around to see if anyone had seen one. The only lead I got was when I googled mountain lion and Whitney Point. I found that a year earlier someone else had posted about a mountain lion sighting from 81 at Whitney point-up on the rocks. Except for all this controversy, based on the previous sighting and what I saw, the most reasonable scenario is that there was an adult mountain lion in the Whitney Point area a year earlier and the one I saw dead on the road was probably an adolescent one-maybe related. Anyway, if I were more adventurous I'd go exploring those rocks between castle creek and Whitney point but I am chicken. I have, incidentally, talked with many people involved with the controversy about mountain lions. Twice I have stopped in at the Whitney Point rest area and asked workers there if they had seen anything. It is a very odd thing because prior to the sighting I could not have cared less about what is roaming around out there. Now I want to know the story behind what I saw.

Also, I talked with people from various depts of Environment/conservation and learned about the controversies. Prior to the mountain lion being killed in Ct, the experts at the departments told me there were not mountain lions in the northeast. After one was killed in Ct they admitted that people in Lake George had reported seeing mountain lions. They had collected evidence, including DNA, around Lake George but they told the people in Lake George that it was probably a bobcat or something else. They continued to deny that there could be a mountain lion in upstate NY. If you google Lake George and Mountain lions you can see and read about interviews between the local residents and the officials conducted at the time. At the time that the cat was killed in CT the officials had simply held the evidence from Lake George. They had not analyzed it. Then, after the cat was killed in Ct they analyzed the evidence and it was, indeed, a mountain lion that had been around Lake George. But then they claimed it was probably a pet let loose. Now, there is one report of one mountain lion being kept in an apartment as a pet in NY. That was 9 years ago. The officials feel that is enough evidence to suggest that mountain lion sightings are probably repeats of that scenario. Yet, a dead mountain lion in Ct and DNA from the Lake George mountain lion and hundreds of sightings from normal people is not as compelling to these officials as that one story about some pet mountain lion being kept in the city. Does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who kept a moutain lion as a pet and let it loose. I've yet to hear about one.


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WNYBuckHunter Experienced

WNYBuckHunter

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Also, I talked with people from various depts of Environment/conservation and learned about the controversies. Prior to the mountain lion being killed in Ct, the experts at the departments told me there were not mountain lions in the northeast. After one was killed in Ct they admitted that people in Lake George had reported seeing mountain lions. They had collected evidence, including DNA, around Lake George but they told the people in Lake George that it was probably a bobcat or something else. They continued to deny that there could be a mountain lion in upstate NY. If you google Lake George and Mountain lions you can see and read about interviews between the local residents and the officials conducted at the time. At the time that the cat was killed in CT the officials had simply held the evidence from Lake George. They had not analyzed it. Then, after the cat was killed in Ct they analyzed the evidence and it was, indeed, a mountain lion that had been around Lake George. But then they claimed it was probably a pet let loose. Now, there is one report of one mountain lion being kept in an apartment as a pet in NY. That was 9 years ago. The officials feel that is enough evidence to suggest that mountain lion sightings are probably repeats of that scenario. Yet, a dead mountain lion in Ct and DNA from the Lake George mountain lion and hundreds of sightings from normal people is not as compelling to these officials as that one story about some pet mountain lion being kept in the city. Does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who kept a moutain lion as a pet and let it loose. I've yet to hear about one.


The one killed in CT was wandering through, not a resident, and that was last year, not 9 years ago.

There are actually quite a few Mountain Lions in captivity in NY.

Your description of what you saw on 81 was most likely a Bobcat, but who knows because you were probably doing 65-76 mph and couldnt have gotten much more than a glance.

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lionsandtigers Newbie

lionsandtigers

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WNYBuckHunte

Nope,

Not a bobcat. Long thick tail that does not taper. Got a good look indeed. What a presumptuous __- you are to think you know what I saw. I know you weren't traveling 7-mph--you were not there at all! I wasn't traveling 70 mph either. Funny how someone like you would feel more comfortable saying it was an elephant in drag or that I was hallucinating then it is for you to accept that it likely was exactly how I described it. Long thick tail. Redish/tan/orange with black markings on round face. Those were the most obvious and clearly viewed features. come on now. Tell me what I saw. Let me know what has a long thick tail, cat features, round face with dark lines/markings. That was what I saw. If you come up with something else that matches those features....cool.

Was most likely a mountain lion. The mountain lion found in a NY apartment happened once-- around 2003-approximately 9 years ago. The ml in CT was about 16 months ago. There are quite a few ML in captivity in zoos and places like Paws and Claws (which I know is in PA-but I said "LIKE"). There are not a lot of mountain lions being raised as pets in people's homes. There are not a lot of Mountain lions raised and then let loose when they become too much for the people raising them. What makes me think you work for some state or federal agency? Just wondering. You'll are eating your words. How do they taste?

Edited by lionsandtigers
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