Quote:
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif You asked has there been other sightings in Pennsylvania, oh YES and many...this came out today
http://www.webbweekly.com/
lost the first link..here's the story
A good book or a good movie is about the only thing that can usually keep me up past my bedtime. That was a true statement until I was given a bound log containing over one hundred sightings of mountain lions in Pennsylvania.
Yes, mountain lions, Felis Concolor (cat of one color) pumas, cougars, gato monte (Spanish for cat of the mountain). There is something about these premiere predators that grabs us on a primal, gut level. To the Cherokee they were klandagi, “lord of the forest,” while the Chickasaws called them ko-icto, “cat of god.” Allegedly, the ancient city of Cuzco in Peru is laid out in the shape of a cougar.
Here in Penn State territory cougars, pumas, panthers and of course the Nittany lion are the mascots of choice.
But there’s a problem. Many cougar sightings are reported to the Pennsylvania Game Commission but the commission’s official stance is that there are no such creatures in Pennsylvania.
Jim Collins, an outdoors writer, and Dr. Dennis Wydra, a retired Mansfield State University professor, are researching cougar sightings in the area. Together they formed the Pennsylvania Mountain Lion Research Project for the purpose of educating the public and finding the truth about the cougar’s existence in Pennsylvania.
The log they loaned Webb Weekly after reading my first article on cougars several weeks back contains sightings of cats of various colors and shades from tawny to black and includes pregnant cougars, moms with cubs, and surprisingly cougars wearing radio collars and ear tags. After reading all 164 sightings, I’ve gone cougar crazy. Inquiring minds want to know, have the big cats returned? Or perhaps they never left.
The close encounters of the cougar kind are in fact all over the map. From Unityville to Waterville. From Sunbury all the way up to the New York state line. Muncy, Williamsport, Jersey Shore, Wellsboro, Canton, and more are all represented in the log.
There is a sighting in the Newberry area which — even if it turned out to be a bob cat or a coyote — would put four schools Round Hills, Jackson Elementary, Roosevelt Middle School and Williamsport High School within the animal’s territory.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has gone on record and repeatedly tells anyone who calls there is not a wild, breeding population of cougars in Pennsylvania. While the sightings may be legitimate, the rationale is that the cougars must be escaped or released pets. Or more likely they are cases of mistaken identity — a bobcat or coyote.
Collins and Wydra are skeptical. They possess considerable photographic and written evidence to the contrary. They say there are too many sightings by credible people for them to be cases of mistaken identity. The people reporting the sightings do not appear to be fringe dwellers they are hunters, football coaches, bankers, insurance agents and members of law enforcement; just everyday people, your friends and neighbors.
Mountain lions were allegedly hunted until they were extirpated, meaning they used to be here now they are gone. The last cougar killed in Pennsylvania was in the 1890’s. Unless you believe the story of John Gallant, a hunter from Edinboro who shot and killed a small 48 pound female mountain lion while squirrel hunting on private land in Venango Township, near Edinboro. The article appearing in the Union City Times in 1967 reported that Gallant had also spotted a larger lion weighing possibly 200 pounds, which was tracked but never found. According to the article, District Game Protector Elmer Simpson certified the cat as a mountain lion
For your consideration:
Pennsylvania may be following the pattern of the other states — sightings, skepticism more sightings and then actual proof. No one believed the sightings of mountain lions in Illinois until a train killed one. Or in Nebraska, “Mountain lions, also called cougars or pumas, had not turned up in Nebraska for more than a century until a deer hunter in the Pine Ridge area killed one in 1991.Since then, there have been 10 confirmed sightings in western and central Nebraska”. (Reported by AP writer Sarah Fox in the Lawrence Journal-World.)
Webb Weekly engaged in email conversation with Mark Jakubauskas, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor, University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Dr Jakubauskas wrote, “It's been two years now since I set off a firestorm of local media attention by releasing a game-camera photo of an apparent cougar. What a lot of people even here in Kansas don't realize or know is that several days after I took the picture, I found a scat sample several hundred feet from the camera location, sent it off to Central Michigan University for tests, and it came back positive for cougar.
Semper Paratus is Latin for always prepared. If there is any chance that one of our readers might encounter a mountain lion in Pennsylvania or elsewhere, Webb Weekly wants you to be prepared.
Here are a few safety tips taken from a larger list provided by Dr. Wydra (space prevents the publishing of the entire list), for a more comprehensive list please visit the website below which Dr. Wydra provided.
http://gf.state.wy.us/services/university/educationexam/lion/:
• Always hike, backpack, and camp in wild areas with a companion
• If you encounter a cougar, always maintain eye contact.
• Never show fear. Never turn away. Never run away.
• Stand tall and if you are with another person, stand two or three together.
• Don’t kneel or crouch.
• Don’t scream and keep children from screaming.
• Carry a big stick.
• If attacked, fight.
Are sightings a case of mountain lion mass hysteria? Consistently game commissions across the country deny both the existence of a wild breeding population east of the Mississippi and the accusation that agencies are stocking the big cats to control the deer population.
Is the Pennsylvania mountain lion an urban/rural myth like the girl hitchhiking on prom night who turns out to be a ghost? Do cougars and big foot fall under the same category?
The most logical course of action regardless of what you believe is to look for credible evidence. The truth is out there, perhaps sunning itself in the beautiful forests of Lycoming County.
If you have a sighting, picture, scat, tracks or any evidence of cougars in Pennsylvania, please contact Dr. Dennis Wydra at 570-672-7278 or email at
dwydra@ptd.net.
Webb Weekly will continue to follow up with the Pennsylvania Mountain Lion Research Project.
Special appreciation is given to Mr. Jim Collins, Mr. Bernie Synoracki and Dr. Dennis Wydra for contacting Webb Weekly and sharing their pictures, documents and information.
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