jhoffman

I made a post over the summer about a mountain lion that my brother had seen while fishing the Elton Creek in Delevan, NY. About a month later there was a mountain lion spoted in the sam general area as the one he spotted.

Openning week of bow season in NY - In West Valley, NY I arrowed a doe and I lost her in the swamp behind my new house. It got too dark to track her and I figured I would come back and find her in the morning. I got back to the house and got in the shower and my fiance came home from the store and called me outside saying she just heard a mountain lion behind the house. I told her she was nuts and then heard the same thing two more times and had to agree with her that it didn't sound like anything other than a mountain lion. Next day I found my doe and both hind quarters were gone completely.

I went to the local Taxadermist and Archery Shop in Springville, NY - S&S Taxadermist and taked to a couple of the employees there about people seeing mountain lions and what they have herd and it turns out that they have herd plenty. Two of the employees have seen and herd mountain lions in the area themselves and said that the dog catcher has reported seeing a mountain lion on Beach tree Rd. Springville, NY and that a hunter reported seeing a deer carcase that had been drug up into a tree on Cole Rd Springville, NY - Both of these locations are within about 5 miles of my house.

A week ago I was out hunting behind the house and found a set of cat tracks that were the size of my hand in the mud along a logging rd behing my house - There were no claw marks that would make me think that they were dog or coyote tracks. I hear more and more about mountain lions every year in the southern tier and run into more and more people that claim to have seen them personally. How can all these cases keep getting put off as mistaken identities - I just wish that someone would pop one of these animals and calls channels 2, 4, and 7 first and then the DEC after the news crews are there taking pictures. I could care less weather they are around or not but i know what I heard and I trust what my brother saw was a mountain lion and that keeps me looking over my shoulder alot more when I am in the woods - I don't think one would attack a person just for the hell of it but its an erie feeling walking home in that dark down the same trail that I herd one on.