ORIGINAL: jhoffman

Neville - what do you refer to when you are talking about my sensationalized article of a deer kill by a cougar? - I do not recall this - I have made post about mt lions before but usually in response to anothers post and I have never found a deer killed by a mt lion - Think you may want to read the entire post and get your facts straight before shooting your mouth off - I asked what people thought about the track I did not come out and state hey look at the Mt Lion track I found - I have seen both bobcats and mt lions and know the difference between the two - if other people cannot tell the difference there really is nothing I can do about that - some people just lack knowledge or only know enough to be dangerous and end up spouting off information that just is not true -

Furthermore I did not ever say it was deffinately a cougar track - I ask what people thought - the only think I was pretty sure of was it was not a dog track -

two - I do not live in PA and the Track was not found in PA I live in NY and the track was found in Delevan NY in Cattaraugus County - about 2 hrs from PA -

Three - The PGC may investigate reports but the NYDEC does not - I know a couple of people who have called and reported sightings or thought they found significant evidence that would indicate a courgar being in the area and no one ever shows up.

Four - I do not blame the DEC for this - I am friends with people who either work for or work with the NYDEC and the explaination that I was given is this: If the DEC admits there are "wild cougar" in NY they have to do a study on the impact of the cougar and habitat studies on the locations of the cougar and put regulations in affect to protect the cougar. They simply do not have this money available and the money they do have is better spent on other projects - they would be forced to do the studies with money they do not have - So basically - if they ignore sightings - or evidence of possible cougar behavior - tracks - kills - scat - then cougars are still not in NY and they do not have to do any studies.

Another bit of info I was given by a DEC office is this - that many of the sightings are probably released cougar or escaped cougar that came from individuals who owned them as exotic pets - most of these cougars are the western variety - not the eastern species - the eastern species is protected in NY and most eastern states - the western species is not because it was never native to NY and is classified as an invassive species if found in NY. If you shoot a cougar to actually fine you the DEC would have to prove it is an eastern Cougar not a western Cougar - if they do the test and find you have shot a western cougar then there is no fine - if they find it is an eastern cougar - then they just confirmed a comeback of the eastern cougar in NY and yes you willl be fined -

I am not one of the people out there that believes there is a mt lion on every ridge in NY and PA - or even that there is a wild sustainable population of them - I believe there could be a handfull of them around and that the chance of them being 100% wild is slim - if they are anything like the common house cat though once in the wild for any amount of time I believe thier instincts would most deffinately revert to wild behavior.

I read the MT lion post on here all the time and I agree that 95% of the sightings and info on Mt lions in the east is B.S. but there are the people out there that really spend a lot of thier time in the woods and who come across things that are out of the ordinary - My uncle has video of lynx in his back yard eating a goose carcase in Cannan, NY (look it up on a map) eastern part of the state near Mass. - There is a fisher in St Marys PA that my grandparents see pretty regularly near thier house. - Just because animals are not supposed to be some where does not mean they are not there.