This rumor is just that a rumor. There have been no mountain lions killed in the Gowanda area to the best of my knowledge. If there were mountain lions in Western NY the woods would be littered with dead deer. Certainly with the number of hunters out in the woods and the number of deer a mountain lion would have to kill to survive people would find carcasses and it would be reported. I own property in Catt County, have worked in Gowanda and I have hunted extensively in and through out the County and have never directly heard some one say that he killed or saw a mountain lion in Catt County. I have heard the rumor but it is just that. This is just another urban legend. I am not saying that it is impossible. Maybe some ones pet mountain lion escaped or was let loose, but there is not a self sustaining population of mountain lions in Western NY. I am sure some day there will be but not yet. If your interested to see where they really are eastern mountain lions check out this web site
http://www.easterncougarnet.org/index.html