are there mountain lions in the poconos

Foster said mountain lions and bobcats could not breed. I've know of reports since 1973, in Cooke Forest, the heart of a lot of Pa. wilderness. In the area around the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia there are mountains and deep caves that contain some of the coal mines that were a major part of the state's industry in the early part of the 19 th century. Interestingly, the US Fish and Wildllife Service has declared the Eastern Puma extinct, except for the Florida population known as the Florida panther. In Michigan, there has been multiple sightings of 'black panthers,' animals that were thought to be mountain lions, or pumas, except that they were black. You would think someone would have a picture on a trail camera or whatever. One came to her as the result of an owner's divorce. As you can see from the above images it is very difficult to confuse the two if you have a good view. I am bothered by the constricted neck of the cat on the game camera; 2. the tail is curved down, rather than up, but it may have been in mid-swing; 3. the goldenrod-appearing flower, and the background of cars, gives a sense of scale and location. Puma vs Mountain Lion: Is There a Difference? Are they all the product of the off-spring of pumas that escaped their owners or were released? Confirmed cougar sightings have increased in the Midwest and Great Lakes states in recent years.". It is almost safe to say that the panther has in these parts become extinct, Goodrich wrote. Did they migrate south from Canada? What do I think of the Canon 1D Mark IV? Learn more about us & read our affiliate disclosure. I'd love to hear of any reports you have. However, it is clearly a mountain lion, and I'm presenting this poor image as a baseline reference for anyone recording a mountain lion on a game camera, or seeing one. I've done this myself once, in Tanzania, when I saw a black house cat that I thought was a black leopard! In captivity mountain, lions can live to be about 20 years old. There are, from time to time, eyewitness accounts from hunters or hikers who claim to have seen the cat. In the wild, adult mountain lions can weigh anywhere from 65 to 220 pounds. More common critters co-existed with early Native Americans in the Poconos, including two species long since removed: the wolf and mountain lion (also known colloquially as panthers and cougars). A few could, perhaps, be mistaken idenity. Mountain lions are 7-9 feet, while bobcats are 3 feet long. Reports generally go uninvestigated by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which discounts them as mistaken identities, illegal pets escaped or released and outright fabrications. Here are the 15 US States That Have Mountain Lions. "Likewise, I'm not aware of any escapes from captive facilities in my time here. So what? With the Great Lakes in its way, the cat moved either north or south of the water, and the latter route would have seen it pass through at least some of Pennsylvania. Noted Wayne County historian Phineas Goodrich recorded in his 1880 book on local history that the common gray wolf was much more common in this area than the cougar. All rights reserved. Newspapers carried stories in 1956 about hunters supposedly seeing and killing wolves in Pike and Monroe Counties. Local outlets carried reports of cougar encounters at least into the 1910s. They know what they saw, regardless of what the facts say, and they know they saw a puma. What does a Mountain Lion look like on a game camera? Continuing with that thought, if that were so, then it'd be possible, if not very likely, that the Eastern puma would be an Endangered Species. I Googled "Pocono mountain lion" and there it was the same photo, except the caption claimed that it was taken in Oklahoma, not Pennsylvania, and various posted comments asserted that the photo was manipulated. Since mountain lions are the top predators (unlike most other states with grizzly bears), they have a well-developed population. I could fill pages recounting the eye-witness reports I've heard, and for every report critics could certainly say 'but there's no physical evidence!' I hope no one ever shoots a puma to prove their existence here, but I hope someone gets a great photo, of the cat, of a road-kill, of tracks, and that I see it. If pumas do exist in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, could they all be released cats or escapees? The mountain lion population in Nevada is essential to the control of deer and rodent populations in the mountainous regions of the state. Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. Are there Mountain Lions (Pumas, Cougars) in Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic States? Over time, cats that had been released in Florida, probably pets that outlived their welcome, bred with the native puma, and their genes mingled, Over the last few years I've done several Questions of the Month regarding Mountain Lions, or Pumas as they should properly be called, in the Mid-Atlantic States and in Pennsylvania. The state of Texas is home to many mountain lion populations, but the numbers are incredibly hard to find. The Asa Packer Mansion, built in the year 1861, is a historic house museum. Currently, mountain lions seem to be making a comeback in regard to their historic range. The Poconos is a mountain area in northeastern Pennsylvania.It is 2,400 square miles of wooded mountains and valleys full of beautiful lakes, rivers, forests and wildlife. So how or why could there be a conspiracy? Several populations of Gray Squirrels scattered around the country are black, and recently I heard of a neighborhood of black Eastern Chipmunks. I'm a photographer, yet I've never had a chance to snap a photograph of one of these bears. Granted, the image is not great, and I used some Photoshop adjustment layers to enhance the image, making it a bit easier to see. These experiences are still available, but the reality is there is so much more for the mature traveler to enjoy in the Pocono Mountains. There are approximately 4,000 of those 10- to 40-pound cats in the state. The same goes for New York and several other eastern states. Knowing that pumas range widely, would my ridge be the only one closed? To be fair, I've also spoken with people who, at first, thought they'd seen a puma only to find, to their embarassment, that they were looking at a house cat! 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Interestingly, almost all of the people I've spoken to who claim to have seen a puma have not seen a bobcat, an animal that is common enough in Pennsylvania to support a legal trapping season! See also: If we don't see it, it doesn't exist. "From people that I trust have had visual sightings, they've seen mountain lions.". "I'm proud to know her," Murray said of the tiger, "but I wish I didn't.". A typical home range is around 150 square miles for adult males and 50 square miles for adult females in our region. There is a small breeding population in the state, despite being killed off in the 1920s. And when our officers go out to investigate reports of mountain lions, or when our staff reviews photos that are sent to us, often we're able to verify some other animal mistakenly was reported as a mountain lion.". It's sort of like big foot, some people say they've seen him.". Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. The Game Commission concluded they were coyotes. Find cabins in the Poconos, PA near places like Bushkill Falls, Camelback Mountain Resort, and more. If youve done any research on your own, you may have noticed that we didnt include a lot of states that have had cougar sightings, especially in the last few years. By the mid-1900s pumas were eliminated from almost all of the eastern states, and by mid-century were officially extinct east of the Mississippi, except for a remnant population in southern Florida. Colorado has a large number of mountain lions within its borders, mostly due to the high elk population, dense forests, and isolated mountain ranges. Mountain lions were once widespread across North America, but their range shrunk dramatically as they were pursued through unregulated hunting and by farmers aiming to protect their livestock, and moved off the landscape by habitat fragmentation. Some have even reported seeing a "black panther," a near-impossibility because of the rarity of that recessive gene. On some investigations, Foster has teamed up with Stacey Griffiths, who started the Central PA Mountain Lion Sightings page earlier this year. If it were, it would be listed. Let me explain this. The mountain lion, which is also called a cougar, puma or panther, weighs on average between 75-120 pounds, has long whiskers and a distinctive swooping tail. Biologists traced it. Mountain lion populations struggle to outpace the high hunting limits. Provided by Touchpoints Known as the Niagara Falls of Pennsylvania, there are four trails that lead to the cascades from the Bushkill Falls trailhead, each ranging in . While the chances that I'll ever see a puma in Pennsylvania myself are virtually zero, I'm always on the alert -- for the bobcat I've never seen in Pa., for a fisher, bear, deer, red salamander, toad, or snake, and yes, I'm always hoping that I too will become one of those who saw something that officially cannot exist within the state, a puma I know I saw but, of course, could not have! What equipment do we take in the field? That's true. Are they all the product of the off-spring of pumas that escaped their owners or were released? Hunting is legal in the state, but it is heavily controlled and restricted. There also were camels, sloth and hyena, which migrated elsewhere. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). During this time, male mountain lions will travel in search of females. It has the color of a mountain lion, but the long tail appears to be missing. Once a mountain lion matures, it will leave its mother and find its own territory. In July and August I received seven different reports, and everyone involved had done a search of some type to compare images of bobcats and pumas. "It's one of those things where I'll believe it when I see it," said Jason Farmer of Pocono Summit, my hunting partner for the last eight years. Because the neck bothered me, I decided to do some Photoshop on the puma in the lower left, moving his head higher up and changing the image to a contrasty black and white - to give a silhouette for comparision. An escapee is also possible. Armand Martinelli isn't only the mayor of East Stroudsburg, he's also a hunter who is connected with plenty of people in the area. Although size can be difficult to determine in the field, a puma will be three or four times larger than a bobcat. Colorado and California have the highest estimated populations of mountain lions in the United States. Mountain lions have a lifespan of about 8 to 13 years old in the wild. Everyone is familiar with albinism, the absence of pigmentation that results in a white, essentially pigment free animal, defined by pink skin and pink eyes. Additionally, California banned the hunting of cougars back in 1972, encouraging population growth. I was heading up the road and I saw an animal with a long tail.". Would these ridges be declared off-limits for hunting? I can't dismiss the eye-witnesses I've interviewed. Woolly mammoth bones were discovered in Bradford County in 1983. Features Writer Micaela Hood is signing off with the Pocono Record after five years of covering arts, culture, entertainment and sports in northeastern . At one time this fact almost resulted in this cat not being protected, since it wasn't a pure strain. Two weeks ago, a friend of mine who teaches in one of the Monroe County school districts called to tell me he was sending me a photo of a mountain lion taken by one of his students in the Poconos. Where reports dating that far back from escapees? On that note, I was speaking with a Fed Ex driver recently who told me that one of his colleagues had seen what he swore was a dead mountain lion on the side of a road.

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