I know for a fact that Cougars are here in PA. I know this because just outside of state college on Rt. 150 there is a breeder that sells them. Often people buy these exotic animals and then figure out that they cannot afford to feed them. This explains why every mountain lion killed since the turn of the 19th century is of latin american descent.
Now I am going to explain the real mystery. I go to college here in Lock Haven, PA and I am an environmental biology student. I spend a great deal of time in the Sproul State Forest ( one of the most remote areas in the NE US look on google earth). I go out and study all of the flora and fauna and can pretty much call myself a naturalist. The last mountain lion was killed in 1871 in the sproul state forest. In 1994 plaster casted tracks of a mountain lion were collected near Tamarack( also part of the sproul state forest). On 2/2/2010 I collected a piece of scat that was 7 1/2 inches long with deer hair and bone fragments twisted throughout. I am almost positive it is from a Cougar. It is way to big for a Bobcat and it looks nothing like Bear scat. This has me thinking. I know that odds of a breeding population of cougars in the NE is nearly impossible.
The real question is whether or not this **** came from a captive bred or wild cougar. All the captive bred cougars are declawed. Could it really be possible for a declawed cougar to successfully hunt when it was not even raised in the wild? It is possible, but seems very unlikely.
Right now the scat is on its way in the mail to the Eastern Cougar Research Network in West Virginia. Its DNA will then be tested to confirm whether or not it is from a cougar. If anybody has any other ideas about this mystery please share them. This is some serious ****.