Syracuse.com - Ask the Outdoors Guy: Is there a bobcat in my yard? Wolves in the Adirondacks?

[HuntingNY-News]

And what happened to all those bass that were weighed in at last weekend's Bass Pro Shops Northern Open in the parking lot of the Fingerlakes Mall?

Readers are constantly asking me questions concerning the outdoors. Questions this week involved bobcats, wolves in the Adirondacks and the bass that were weighed in at last week's Bass Pro Shops Open in the parking lot at the Fingerlakes Mall.

The following questions came from Gabel Hood:

A bobcat.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

Mr. Figura - Your article on bobcats caught my attention this morning. I have been meaning to contact you about a "cat" I saw on my property in the town of Marcellus in April. I was looking out my picture window into my back lot (about 2 acres) when out of the woods a cat of some sort came walking towards the house. It was about 75' into my lot by the time I realized it was not a dog. It walked slow like a cat but was much to large to be a house cat. I got my binoculars and looked at the cat in the face and it looked just like a bobcat (or mabe a lynx?). What I don't get is that when it turned to walk away it did not have a bobed tail. It had a long tail that was up in the air. Do bobcats have a normal tail when they are young or are they born with a bobbed tail? I would love your thoughts on what I saw.

Answer: Hmm... interesting. Not sure without seeing a picture. Meanwhile, the DEC has a section on their website dedicated to bobcats. Check it out.

This came from Ray Kozloski:

A gray wolf. 

Hi Dave, I have contacted you before regarding things I have observed while out hiking. Last weekend I was hiking in the Adirondacks. On saturday, I was on my way back to camp after Hiking "Giant Mt." I was driving n route 9N heading north toward upper Jay when I saw this animal run out of the woods onto the shoulder, stopped quickly when I drove within 20 yards of it and then dashed back into the woods. The whole observation took 3 seconds. My wife, grandson and I had been to the syracuse zoo on wednesday and the animal I observed looked just like the grey wolf at the zoo but only larger.

Back at camp that night (I was camping in a in a remote section near Wilmington, NY just north of Whiteface Mt), about dusk I heard what sounded like baying wolves. I have heard this many times while hiking and camping in Alaska, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. What I heard sounded just like the wolf calls I have heard many times before. My question is, are there wolves in the Adirondacks? Have sitings and sounds been heard before? It was really exciting to see and hear them. Any verification?

A red wolf at the Burnett Zoo. Danielle Austen 

Answer: (I forwarded Ray's story to the state Department of Environmental Conservation). The response I got from DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino follows....

" It seems very likely what this person saw and heard were coyotes. As far as we know, we do not have wolves in NY, and consider them as extirpated from the state.

"Coyotes in NY have been shown to contain a genetic component of red wolf, which they are thought to have picked up during their gradual eastern expansion into Ontario, Canada, and then south into northern NY. Thus the eastern coyote tends to be larger than the western coyote. However, genetically and behaviorally our animals are primarily coyotes, so we continue to call them that. There's a page on the DEC website that discusses coyotes that may be of use:

"Roland Kays, formerly with the NYS Museum, investigated eastern coyotes a while ago. His findings were published in a popular article in the Pennsylvania Game News. That report is available from the NY State Museum's website."

Finally, this question came from Judy Hyatt:

Seth Felder, of Blooming, Minn., holds up a pair of nice bass at last weekend's Bass Pro Shops Northern Open.Scott Schild | [email protected] 

"Please tell me if the bass that were weighed at Bass Pro Shop in Auburn were returned to Oneida Lake or somewhere closer to Auburn."

Answer: "Per Bassmaster rules, they were all returned alive back to Oneida Lake. Many of the anglers put ice in their livewells to keep the fish alive, in addition to chemical additives. After the weigh-in, the fish were put in a huge holding tank (it was located next to the stage) and transported back to the lake."

See the bassmaster.com website for more on how they do it and the rules and regulations concerning keeping the fish alive.

"Ask the Outdoors Guy" is an occasional column. Have a question you'd like answered about the outdoors? Send your queries to [email protected].

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog