monsterbuckland

my buddy says his friend shot a 220 lb lion while coyote hunting, says he was calling in coyotes and this guy came in to steal the chow! the pic is huge,,,,,, wow!

BarnesX.308

I don't see a picture.

RonM

This has been on here three or four times it has been called a hoax. It was allegedly killed somewhere else, who knows?

Martin Cougar

I don't see a pix either. If it's the one that I think - it's in the P&Y photos and it wasn't shot in PA.

Legacy357

there was a pic of it in this one hunting store near bellefonte. some one says that it was shot somewhere north of harrisburg i think. I think they did say the guy was coyote hunting and he shot it. It was huge but i still don't know if i believe. i would have to see it myself to make that decision

T_in_PA

It' s a hoax

Cougar report off by a continent
Purloined photo provides proof for perplexed

Sunday, June 22, 2003
The latest mountain lion hoax to sweep through Pennsylvania over the past couple weeks certainly was a bit more elaborate than many we' ve seen.

This one came complete with a photo of a man struggling to support a monstrous carcass of cougar, allegedly killed by a coyote hunter on State Game Lands 211 in either Stony Creek Valley or Clarks Valley, just north of Harrisburg
Problem was, the photo was stolen from the Web site of the Montana-based Boone and Crockett Club (www.boone-crockett.org), official record-keeping organization of big game records, and it showed a mountain lion that was killed in Washington state.

That didn' t stop hundreds of people from quickly spreading the rumor across the state and beyond, after the false report first appeared on several Pennsylvania outdoor Web sites.

I received e-mails on the topic from 153 different people. At least I believe they were different people. Who can really know in the land of electronic nicknames?

For the most part, they fell into three groups.

The first group, made up of 117 of those people and apparently aware that I firmly believe the only mountain lions in Pennsylvania are those captive felines that have escaped or been released, approached the topic from the angle of " now try to tell me there are no mountain lions in the state."

Many of those people took advantage of yet one more opportunity to dust off their own reports of neighbors or friends of friends who have seen mountain lions in Pennsylvania.

Quick bit of advice: The next time you see the cat, take a photo with a telephoto lens. And, after it has left the area, go to the exact spot where you saw it, find a good clear track, cover that track with something light to protect it from the elements and immediately call the Eastern Puma Research Network at (410) 254-2517 to have an investigator come take a look.

A second, smaller group -- 31 people -- approached the topic a bit more skeptically, asking me to confirm their suspicions about the authenticity of this report.

And the third group of five -- to whom I am very grateful for using e-mail rather than the phone -- found proof in what looked like a ring at the base of the cat' s tail that the cougar had been radio-tagged, which was then proof to them that the Pennsylvania Game Commission had stocked the animal.

The commission also fielded a number of e-mails about the mountain lion, although " we' re not inundated," said spokesman Bruce Whitman.

Most of those e-mails, he noted, wanted confirmation that the report was a hoax or wondered if Pennsylvania had a season for hunting the big cats, which it does not.

" Sometimes the unbelievable spreads faster than the common-sense," he commented. " By the way, I have a bridge. Are you interested?"

Keith Balfourd, marketing coordinator from Boone and Crockett, also took the incident pretty much in stride.

He hadn' t seen any of the e-mails when I spoke with him, but commented, " It doesn' t surprise me that it would happen. Once you post something on the Internet, it' s out there for just about anyone to steal."

The speed with which the Internet can spread false information, he noted, is " one of the reasons we put that Trophy Watch section on our Web site, to help squelch rumors."

The Trophy Watch section of the organization' s Web site appears to be the spot on the internet from which the photo was misappropriated.

And, now, for those who want to mix a little fact with their fantasy, here' s what that site has to say about the " Clarks Valley cougar:"

" One Big Cat: Jan. 21, 2003: This big tom was taken by Jim Hackewitz using a varmint call and hunting within six miles of Bellevue, Wash. There is no official score as of yet, but judging by the photo, he has to score high in the all-time book.

" Bellevue is a major suburb of Seattle. Washington voters passed a bill banning the hunting of cougars with dogs a few years back. Good idea?

" Update: Unofficial score - 15-12/16, which would be in a six-way tie for No. 7 all-time. Included in this list is a 15-12/16 tom taken by the only American President in the records book, Boone and Crockett Club founder Theodore Roosevelt, which when entered was the world' s record cougar taken in Meeker, Col., in 1901.

" Correction: Jim Hackewitz did the calling. The big tom was taken by Roy Hisler from Duval, Wash., with one shot from a .30/06 shooting Barnes X bullets.

" April 30, 2003, update: The official entry score for this cougar is 15-7/16 and the hunter' s name is Roy Hisler, not Ron."

One closing thought for the party or parties responsible for this most recent hoax: The next time you' re feeling too much free time weighing heavily on your mind and are unable to come up with anything constructive to do with that time, give me a call. My compost pile, rather than the electronic compost pile that the Internet often seems to become, can always use some turning.

MARCUS SCHNECK: (610) 562-1884 or [email protected]

Ace101

I heard something about it but I never seen the picture.