Ok...here is the real deal.......

My friend has a friend who works at the Game Commission. This guy supposedly was there when the GC released over 100 cougar into the woods in central PA. This release was funded, in part , by the auto insurance industry. A small portion of the funding came from farmer's groups, unhappy about crop losses. The cougar were obtained from the state of Nevada...the exact area was a place called area 51.....seems the cougar were too busy flushing herds of Mule Deer, which in turn caused the high tech security sensors to alert, causing many false alarms for base security personnel. So the CIA live trapped them, and with permission of the US Forest Service, transferred rights of ownership to PA. The cougar have been tagged in order for state biologists to more accurately track them....this will aid in learning all they can about the cougar. These radio collars have a cardiac monitor built in....as soon as the cat dies, a signal is sent to the Game Commission, alerting them to the fact. The cat can then, if so desired, be blown up by remote control (the collar has 3/4 of a pound of C4 in it...). This explains why no hunter nor hiker has ever seen one dead. As we know, they are too wily to been seen alive. Gary Alt was a big opponent of the Cougar releases....see where that got him ....can you say forced retirement. Anyway, like I said, a good friend of my good friend said he was there when it happened. I believe him. Dont You?

http://www.taxidermy.net/Forums/Industryarticles/04/L/04809d77df.Html

a web site with some additional reading..and hey guys play nice i never wanted this to becaome an arguement, just asking other peoples thoughts because there have been enough"sightings" to atleast be curious..although i do think many have been large bobcats

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/IndustryArticles/99DC79E14.html

good links

Your right about the stories I am collecting the sighting reports in New York, and interested in Penn. as well.

I have a site dedicated to this
check us out

http://www.Trackincats.com

Now, a few years ago 1973-74 while out running the dogs in the highlands just out side the town of New Milford PA, our dog lite into a cat! Now if your familiar with this area you know the highlands cross over into NY state, one big hill after another up and down and so on. Well I'll tell ya what! non believers, Our walker dog and two other dogs a big ole' redbone and young bluetick had that bad jasper cornered in the tops of an old clearcut!

The walkers ear was half ripped off and collar was gone! the dogs were so outta control you couldn't get near them! to leash em. The Redbone layed on his side yelping and a squeallin like a gut shot hog! and the Blue tick was on top of the pile of tops trying to go over the top down into the pit with the cat!There was nothing but fur just a flying everytime that blue dog tried to go in. My partner got up top side of the pile and dove on the Blue dog to keep him from going back in for another lickin! The cat bolted from the pile like it's A$$ was on fire and leaped about 20 feet through the air! We never thought much of it since even then there had been seeing cougars and panthers in that vast area of forest.

well, we patched the dogs up the best we could and headed out just a laughing at the whole thing The red bone the best we figured got the wind knocked out of him when the cat swiped him causing him to tumble down over some logs and probably figured it was safe to play dead! The tough old walker dog as we figured was being coaxed back in the pile by the bluetick, so it seemed cause he did all the fighting and the Blue dog was just the instigater to the whole doings Now we have cornerd and treed bobcats before and even have gone as far as pullin them out of rocks with an old piece of pipe with a fan belt laced back through it. That wasn't the case that night! this was a COUGAR! and it looked to be 9-10 feet long when it dove out of that pile and bounded 15 - 20 feet a hop across those tops. Man what a night!

didn't mean to go so long guys, just wish you non's were there then!
Thanks

Vaportrail

I hate to join this...but I gotta since it was brought back to the top. In the late nineties, I worked in northwestern PA as a paramedic and watched a video which was taken from security camera footage in a DOD contract facility. There was clearly a BIG kitty sitting on a pile of materials. The tape was clear, and I would deny it myself if I hadn't seen it. Cat was about five or six feet long while lying on the ground.

I hunted PA for a decade and never crossed a track. I never saw any kills that I would attribute to a lion, and I certainly never saw one live. But I did see the video of a very live and very large cat in the Allegany National Forest.

Just my $0.02

WNYS

Quote:

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the highlands just out side the town of New Milford PA,

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Lots of land w/out houses or roads. Was just up in that area with the family on a Sunday drive, you can actually get a "Car" through the million dollar highway now. Seen lots of deer and bunch of porkys. The old beaver damn/swamp is gone and dried up, looks to be good coon and fox hunting, maybe we'll call in one of them big kitty's this fall

Vic

I'm not doubting you as the messenger. But it Sounds very Urban Legend to me. One thing I notice about many of the stories are the mention of insurance companies releasing them, or someone has video footage. Although the terrain and healthy whitetail population in Warren county and many other surrounding counties could support them (I grew up in Northampton Cty).

It's always possible, but my gut tells me it's pretty unlikely, until someone actually shoot's or hit's one with their vehicle.

many people say they are here and many say they arnt. i would like to think that they arnt but i saw one 4 years ago in Clearfield county. it crossed in front of me as i was driving. it crossed onto a powerline. i wasnt sure what it was at first but when i pulled up it was standing 15 yards from the side of the road. the thing that gave it away was the long tail. i spend almost all of my time outdoor. i know what a bobcat is because i trapped one and i know it wasnt one of them. it is something i will never forget.

AS coyote ugly said there are confirmed sightings in Nj The state police and fish and game both positively id tracks in the south jersey area 6 or 7 years ago . This year alone there were multiple sightings in all parts of the state includeing a female and cub by a policeman who was skeptical about calls in the area that someone had reported a lion. He said after seeing it with his own eyes he would respond to calls of this nature wbeing a little more open minded. The funny thing is all the pa guys doubted it .I know pleny of people living in the cody wyoming an area with a good population who have never seen one in there life. It doesnt mean they dodnt exist there. I have friend in Utah who actually lives in an area with a big population of lions who is avid hunter and outdoorsman. He lives off of what he hunts and fishes for and told me he has seen 2 lions in his life .He is 75 years old and said they are very elusive and a male can range up to 200 miles.

well guys 1chopper is my dad and I am on his side i am 14 and we hunt the little cats (bobcats) all winter walking rocks and checking tracks an i have never came across one now maybe there is but i rele dont thinks so and the people that see them somtimes i thinkk mistake them for bobcats not that there a huge bob cats but if u see a flicker of something you could esaly say hey i just saw a mt lion. By the way I wonder if they taste good

It is my understanding that the tracker dogs had a tough time because there was a lot of cat scent for his dogs being there was so many house cats in the area. I dont know how true this is but I know there are guys better qualified on this forum to answer if this is possible.

I am not saying there is not a chance that they do not exsist but I have many friends that are PGC Game Wardens and I have seen all the "proof" that everyone says they have and have come to the conclusion there is no hard proof. Usually the story or picture is from a friend of a friend of a friend. Does that mean that we will never have them no, but now there is no proof. Plus this nonsense about the Insurance company releasing mt.lions is BS. I have first hand info from the many Game Wardens that is a made up lie trying to make the commission look bad. As for killing one if you do kill on in pa it is protected and there is a big fine for it, I know because I asked the question. I said what if someone does kill one here that is proof and was told I hope they dont they will get a huge fine. So we will just have to wait and see I guess. I am sure they are coming sometime

Did that anti-exotic pet law pass in NYC a couple of years ago after that Bengal Tiger mauling in the projects? Pet dumping could account for a lot of mountain lion sightings. Even a black leopard now and again

Even if ML do reestablish themselves in PA (my old stomping grounds), it might not be quite the doomsday scenario some folks imagine it to be, given the current havoc an overpopulation of whitetail deer wreck on the forest.

LionHo