livbucks...thanks for posting this! Can you lighten on the TAIL area??

Why is there empty space below where the tail should beand the top of the leaves?

Man...I don't know what to think of these pics. First let me start off by saying that I think that there are deffinitely cougars in Pa so I'm not trying to be a doubting thomas here. Personally I think that the pic is that of a bobcat. Yes, the color matches a Mt. Lion to a T, but there are other characteristics that make me not so sure. The tail for one seems way too skinny to me to be a lion. The base of the tail would be as thick as your wrist and it deffinately wouldn't be white underneath as in the pic. The tail is also at least 3 feet long in a lion and curves out behinda lion, however in this pic you don't see any tail in the opening where one should be indicating the tail can't be more than 12 inches or so. You can also clearly see the tufts of hair on the cheeks that is common in bobcats but not there at all in Mt. Lions. Mt. Lions also don't have clearly defined white bellies and chins as in the pic but I've seen bobcats that do. Like I said, I have seen lions in Pa and firmly believe they are here, I just think some people want to see proof so bad that they tend to be biased when looking at pics.Sorry, but my vote is bobcat. I know I'm stirring up a hornets nest here but this is just my opinion based on what I see.

Here is a pic pointing out what I'm talking about just to clarify.

bearklr, you make some very good points.

I want to believe they're here myself but these pictures are inconclusive.You're correct about the size of the ears.Also,Bobcats have white patches on the back of their ears surrounded by black just like in the picture.If you look closely,there appears to be spots on the front of it's belly.However,most of the belly is missing even though the leaves aren't blocking it completely.The complete absence of a tail also has makes me skeptical.A mountain lions tail would be thick and would see it below the leaves.In the picture,there's dead space below the tail and the leaves but no tail.Who know's it may be a mountain lion but it could also be a bobcat.It also very well could be altered.My question is,why is every picture missing the tail?

I did not notice the tail before in the Pic - and that is definate reason to be skeptical but the other points about the ears and the white under belly - Mountain Lions can and do have white under bellies - My uncle has one full body mount in his living room and it has a white under belly. He also has pics of other ones that where tree'd by hounds and they too have white under bellies. The ears don't really prove anything either - i do agree though on the tail - a mountain lions tail is at least 3 foot long and they are normally thick and heavy - very noticeable.

The one thing that i notice in the Pic that makes me think that it is a mt lion is its coat. Bob cats normally do not have that coloration but I know that is a possability but the texture of the coat is noticably different from a mt lion to a bobcat - the tail does raise a concern though.

hoffman, I see what you are saying about the coat. That to me was the only thing that deffinitely looked like a mountain lion. However, I think it's too hard to tell because the pic is so grainy. If it was sharp we would be able to see more detail. As far as the white belly I agree with you there too, lions do have white bellies. I think I just worded what I was trying to say wrong. Lions coats fade as the get closer to the belly going from golden to pale yellow and then eventually to white only on the very bottom. This cat looks as if someone drew a line from brown to white. Here's a pretty decent pic of a lion to compare whatI'm trying to say.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Bobcat_sitting.jpg


http://www.socogardenszoo.com/Bobcat%20-%20Bobbie.jpg

---even in this pic with similar coloration to a mountain lion you can notice the difference in the texture of the coat ---

http://www.sawtoothadventures.com/MountainLion.html
---this site has both pics of a really big bobcat and a couple of mt lions - you can see the size of the tail on all the mt lion pics and on one of the pics you can see that the mt lion does have a very light/white underbelly and white under the chin and on the neck - Also notice the texture of the coat compared to the bobcat pics - the mt lions coat is much more corse.

Coat appearance and density will change in cougars just like it does in any other animal depending on the time of year. I have a cat on my wall that I killed fair chase in early october. The hair is very fine and light in color. I have seen several killed in the mid winter months. The hair looks coarse and darker than the summer coat. By the looks of the leaves on the plants in the pic. It looks to be in the warmer months. I have a hard time beleiveing any pics on the net, or even the paper these days. I would have to vote bobcat in the pic also. But still am open to the fact that cougars could be roaming the east!!!!!

Hi All,
I have been reading this forum for over two years and finally decided to join in. The nice picture you are all debating is inconclusive to me. You can not clearly see the tail. I recently got this nice picture of a NY bobcat and he is very plain and "cougar colored".