Eastern COUGAR REPORTS PLEASE GIVE YOUR IMPUT

[Deerqueen]

Well..I am very interested in this subject as we had something very unusual happen to us last year..wondering how many others have seen wild cougars in the eastern US. or any black or melanistic ones anywhere in the US...

Please repost your sightings here...

Here's my story....

YES most definitely THERE are COUGARS in the eastern US and other cats BOBCATS HAVE MADE an astounding comeback in Eastern United States..
I live in TN and hunt and am out in the woods more than most people and can tell fresh sign from many animals..on my current hunting lease (yes I AM a woman and I have my own lease!!) we have had several families of bobcats over the years..(I will not shoot them as I am a great cat lover) Last year I watched 2 yearling bobcats and saw them almost every time I was out in the woods..
As to the mountain lions.. I have a strange report....
I have rentors which live on some property I own is close to my hunting lease..It is wooded and rocky as well..Right after the bad storms last year..Hurricanes in FL They reported to me on several occassions seeing a HUGE dark (YES BLACK!!) cat of large proportions approx. 6 feet long or better sunning itself on a rock on top of the hill behind their trailer every day..They said it entirely covered the rock which was a flat 5 1/2 feet or so by 3 1/2 feet across and they were afraid to go outside!! I immediately knew what it was and I was not alarmed..I was excited but I never got to see the cat myself..although I noticed the deer in the area were more alert than usual (we had tons of them there) and had completely avoiding my feeder behind the house suddenly. I am sure that it was a black or melanistic color phase Cougar. They also saw it once in the headlights early in the morning, as the husband left for work very early..then one day finally the rentors wife opened the back door and called to the cat...They hadn't seen it since so I assume it left that area. Black phase lions have also been reported in the southeastern part of Wilson Co. TN here but that was 10 years ago..I believe they are here but are rarely seen. Many reports are ignored as false and not taken very seriously..

I for one am very interested in hearing them…

[gregarat]

There are Bobcats in New York state, but its rare to see one. You see there tracks in the snow more often. Although I have seen one, in the town of Forestport. It was at night and the cat was crossing the road. I hear, that there is a mountan in the Adirondacks where cougers live. But I can not conferm that.

Here in Florida. My freind "Honey" makes cages to capture Cougers, that are run away "pets". Ill ask her more about it when I see her next. I ave heard storys from first hand whitnesses th BLACK couger/panther's. So your story is no suprise to me. If you use the key words "Florida Panther", you will fina alot of links on Google. There are atemts to reintroduce cougers back into Florida. The problem is caged male cougers dont adapt well, but biologicaly it is feasible.

[Nulle]

I think the increase in cats is from coast to coast and being in the Western section of South Dakota I can tell you I saw more mountain lion signs then elk signs so far this season.

[Mike Moss]

Cougars are being spotted near the CT/MA/NY intersection. I did see one near Bennington, VT long ago.

Someone made the point that some F&G depts will not 'listen' to the reports.

The point made was that if it's announced that they are back in a certain area the tree huggers might get the area closed to hunting.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Just today in Bradys Run Park in Beaver county, western Pa, hunting with my cousin, I pushed a bobcat right past him by a few yards. We have had a cougar spotted in South Beaver twp also Beaver County,pa for years and they held up in an old abandon car on top the hill...this is just about a few hundred yards from the farm I told Fabs about that is for sale...also where they had to trap and remove a bear the local woman was feeding and got worried when it decided to nest under her house. Critters are running out of room in the wild so have to move on I guess...Glad they can still find a place to survive.....so in w.pa bobcats,cougars,bears are here.

[Deerqueen]

Oh that's great near CT my home state!!!
Bobcats are becoming a frequent tennant and can make quite a good living on even a small woodlot. It tickles me every time I look in the even more recent copies of Big Game Field guides to see their habitat on the maps and it does not include many parts or does not show at all in the southeastern US..
At least they have made a remarkable comeback..
Now for the treehuggers (of which I have been accused of being one by our local BADGUY SUBDIVISION DEVELOPER (I HOPE HE HAS NIGHTMARES ABOUT ME>>LOL)
If even one of them can stop our farms from being turned into high concentration housing developments..more power to em!!!!!!!!!!

[Deerqueen]

Yep...I'm a treehugger.

[Lilred]

When I was a youngun....there were more bobcats and whatnot than you can shake a stick at. We trapped and killed 50-1100 (said fifty eleven hundred meanin a helluva lot...yeah that's a werd so dont pick on me lol ) bobcats over the years.
As fer as them cougars...there are many of em in the mountains here. As fer as black ones....in 1979..me and my entire family was witness to one that got in the chicken house one night. Never seen nuthin like that ever again. Course...we did have a game farm operated by the state in them days...so that could be the explanation...but still...he aint act like no game farm cat.
Speakin of the game farm...they had a hard time keepin them animals on the place....trex might remember that. I remember as a lilone my Pop draggin me by the shirt jumpin in the truck to head up to the store to see the biggest buck anybody ever seen round these parts...his rack was every bit of 3 ft wide and just as tall....and Cumberland aint never had such a traffic jam as that day. People had been catchin glimpses of that rascal...but nobody had downed him till then. It was a dern mule deer that had done got out of the game farm somehow...and especially back then..most folks round here aint even heard of a mule deer..lmao...it was great...that boy thought he had the werld record fer sure...ahhhh them was the good ole days....

[Deerqueen]

Yes..I bet that guy thought he had a doosey. Reminds me of a guy up here who had a game farm and his red deer and follows knocked the fence down...I think alot of his bigger stuff got out thaty day elks and ....
I think someone shot one of them There was a big hoopla over that too!!

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Ah shucks ladies, ain't nothin...lol...Those that live a few miles from the nuke plant spotted deformed deer that looked a whole lot like lamas....lol. guess you never know what exotic game lives out there. Like the man that got 2 funny lookin birds sent him from his son in South America. They were blue with some kind of yellow thing on the head but live and fresh. When his son asked him if he ever got them he said 'yes and they were delicious' .....son couldn't believe they ate them. Told his dad they were expensive birds and could even talk in 2 languages....Dad said ' well then one of them should have spoke up'

[Deerqueen]

How bout pictures of the deformed lammas...................nmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm deer????????????!!!!!!!
Ever heard of any big cat sightings up in PA there..
I know that there are plenty of pockets and quite a bit of open country up there they might hide in...

[rubicon]

I have seen big cats in West Virginia and on one occasion several years ago saw a black cat. Growing up my friends and I used to camp out in a lean to at the top of a canyon in the national forest and listen to the bobcats cry all night. What an erie sound- like a baby crying. these days we listen to coyotes howling all night.
Deerqueen, where I come from a person who hunts and is also interested in conservation and saving much needed habitat and hunting areas is not a tree hugger, rather a sportsman or sportswoman. We consider the granola eating, anti hunting, anti fishing, anti almost everything , peta loving individuals tree huggers and you certainly dont appear to fit into that group.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Yes up here in W.Pa my inlaws have watched a cougar for a few years now and then cross the big field and jump over the fence. Have seen the tracks in the snow. It's all here in this state, cougars, bobcats, bears and many skunks etc. I like to take my coffee out on the front steps about 4 AM or so and one hot summer morning sitting on the step without a shirt on, I felt something furry brushing cross my back rubbing on me... I was afraid to move because just a wk or so before that my dog suprised a skunk in a flower bed and she and the wife took a full blast...I sat quiet and it changed directions and rubbed it's fur all over me on the way back the other way....It ended up being a neighbors cat...Whew....at least not a polecat ...but the best one I bet noone on HC has ever had in their yard is a bintheron. Yep, had one here in the yard....If anyone has ever seen one or had one in the yard, I have to know...

[skeeter@ccia.com]

A correction in my spelling. Binturong or asian bearcat....check it out on the web. What an unusual creature but yes, had one in the yard and what a suprise when heard something on the porch and put the light on it.

[Deerqueen]

Skeeter..it may sound funny to you but one of the things I am most terrified of in the woods is a skunk!! One had me treed one day while bowhunting. It laid down at the base of my tree while I was up there in my stand..Those crazy things are not afraid of people..will run right up to you...and you never know if they have rabies or not!!!!

Rubicon I guess I'm not that KIND of a tree hugger...but I DO eat granola
I AM CERTAINLY NOT a PETA person...
I hunt and fish MAO, spend more days in the field than most anyone you know unless they are an outfitter...and probably have taken more deer than most of the guys you know (not trying to brag here...just proving a point). I am a SERIOUS OUTDOORS PERSON.
I have called myself a sportsperson and to that my significant other said " You don't see them selling sportspersons' licences, do you??!!!"..)since then I have called them sportspersons licences )
I am a treehugger too really and truely in the sense that I would do almost anything to keep these contractors from mowing down and tearing out our forrests and chopping up our big farms the way they are doing around here..In this area it has reached epidemic proportions...It is absolutely aweful the way they just bring bulldozers in and mow down everything. They don't consider the fact that someone might want to buy a lot with some older big trees on it. Some of the trees I recently watched them tear out were at least 200 years old (that is during the founding of our country, for CSakes!!) and they WERE healthy but now they are gone .
GREAT to hear about the cats, though..
keep it coming....................