Animals have a great tendancy to repopulate suitable habitat, if given have a chance. I don't doubt for a minute that captive cougars have been set free by unprepared pet owners. I don't know if they'd have the ability to survive long, but they would probably be seen on occassion.

I recently read an interesting study where they had done some gene profiling on the Eastern Coyote. They found that it contained a percentage of wolf genes, but no dog genes. It appears that it is a wolf hybrid (small percentage of wolf), not a coydog.

loulou.So you have taken part in this black op for the DEC? Your the person that has released cougars in NYS with out the publics knowledge,just can't talk about here even though you just did.

You got any secret pictures?

I guess somone should find out who you really are(not that hard to do) and supeona your butt into court. Because if what you say is true it's an illegal act.

LMAO- The only thing insulted is my inteligence, by reading your last post. i am supposed to believe that you released cougars into NY? dude , this is off the handle! hey i'm sure they could be in maine, new hampshire, whatever, but thats not the the topic at hand. the topic is "COUGAR SIGHTING IN CENTRAL NEW YORK."
and to this date , there has been no scat, tracks, hairs ,videos, kill sites, photos, NOTHING to back up this statement. last time this thread went around, someone sent me a picture of a black housecat in a cornfield. it's laughable. Man, every state that HAS cougars has an issue with them, and new York is covertly releasing them..............riiiiiiiiight.
go to www.snopes.com (the urban legend homepage) and look around. every story that gets regurgitated here is documented there. giant pike -catfish- bluegills that scared underwater welders so badly they quit thier jobs, DEC releasing rattlesnakes to control the wild turkey population (my favorite)... the 200lb coyote in PA that turned out to be someones 120lb pet wolf-malamute hybrid, it's all there.

i've no interest in getting into a pissin match here, just think about what you're laying out for us to believe.

hey, you very well may have been involved in a conspiracy/black op to release cougars in NY..........cool.
i think that would make climbing into a tree at 4 am to go bowhunting quite interesting.... but till i see some proof, i'll remain skeptical.
the jackasses i was refering to are the ones that come to my fathers taxidermy shop with a coyote thinking its a timber wolf, or a bobcat saying it's a cougar. happens at least 2 times a season.
have a good one
-moose

Shelly Lefever, (716) 793-4817, 91 Union St, Westfield, NY 14787 That you Shelly?

so moose is that your back ground taxidermy. and that lets you know whats here and whats not. as for snops if it where a news papers it would not be fit tolite reading

and your background is what, English major?
sorry could not resist

ding ding --- i'm done with this thread permanently

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/northeast.htm

Sad to see that recently on most threads nowadays everything results in a pi$$ing match with few facts or documentation links to support anything. Opinions don't cut it when trying to prove oneself IMHO.

I guess the bottom line is that people will believe what they want to.

Me, I cannot personally fathom the fact that there have been CONFIRMED instances of Cougars in the Northeast, and yet some still say no, no, there are none in NY, even tho you have a pretty nice chunk of Wilderness out there!! It always had to be a pet, had to be this, must be a figment of your imagination, etc. Too many biologists and Wildlife Officials out there that know better, and some even go to the trouble of proving things beyond a shadow of doubt thru DNA testing for that type of response to hold water IMO.

While it is in fact true that they are certainly SCARCE in the Northeast, and admittedly some may have been captive pets that escaped or whatever, one cannot simply say "nope, none here" when there are in fact increasing amounts of regular sightings and scientific documentation to prove otherwise. Might not be a large population, no, but they have been documented throughout the region with definitive confirmations and also have a high number of "probables" nonetheless.

And if we have confirmations of them in Southern NH, Northern MA, and Southern ME, you can bet your bippy that you have eastern cougars in NY too. Still trying to get ahold of a couple of pics, I'll keep trying. Good shooting, Pinwheel 12

it sad that some people refuse that the chance might be their to the fact that the cougar is here in ny but it is only a matter of time be for they are found true. let hop it is not when a hiker loses their life/

Well, I have been away for a while, and yet I see things are still the same. The last time I read this inlighting topic it was pretty much the same thing some people belive and some people are skeptical, who can really say for sure weather or not there are cougars in central NY, I know I can't and I don't belive anyone else can honestly say they aren't. If there are cougars in NY so be it! If there aren't well what difference does it really make, It is possible, just like the moose in the adirondacks, animals migrate, habitat changes, people build, inturn running out the wildlife that once lived there, So who's to say it couldn't happen? I just hope that come sept, oct, I don't run into one while climbing into my tree stand. If cougars live here they live here. No need to get all uptight about it.

they said the same thing up in bellville henderson. rumors like that have been floating around up here for years