Mountain Lions in PA?

Mountain lions? Oh yeah,up until a few years ago we were loaded with them around here in the Adirondacks.
We finally solved the problem by laying out a great big trail of little friskies over to Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, my own encounter with a mountain lion didnt turn out very well.
During the winter of '93 the snowfall was so great up here that travel was impossible.
Things got pretty tough as groceries began to run out and the children had less and less each day to eat.
I was finally forced to take matters into my own hands and decided that I might be forgiven under the circumstances if I did a little extracurricular hunting.
I headed out one morning during blizzard conditions but I had confidence in my skills as a hunter and a woodsman.
I soon found the fresh track of a deer and followed it hoping for a shot.
Up the mountain, through a gap, and onward I went.
Late that afternoon I finally caught site of a magnificent ten point buck and worked my way up a ridge to where I could make a sucessful shot.
It actually took two shots to bring him down, and by the time I finished field dressing him it was pitch dark and the snow had filled my tracks.
I circled the mountaintop looking for any indicator of the way I had come and that's when I found the tracks that showed I wasnt the only hunter on the mountain that night.
What I found as I came upon my own tracks were the tracks of a huge mountain lion who had undoubtedly smelled fresh venison and planned to relieve me of my kill.
On the theory that heading in any direction was better than just running in circles, I chose what seemed like a good route and began making my way down the mountain and hopefully away from the lion.
I came to the head of a steep ravine and thought to use it to my advantage.
I put the deer on the edge of the ravine, climbed aboard, grabbed the antlers, and started to luge my way down the mountainside.
What I didnt realize was just how determined a hungry mountain lion can be, and when I looked back up the mountain there was the surefooted lion sliding along after me like one of Austrias best alpine olympic skiers.
I took my first shot at him at a hundred yards but my wild ride caused me to miss him clean.
The same thing happened on my seventy five yard second shot.
My third shot at just fifty yards was closer to the mark but only managed to graze him along his flank.
Now if there's one thing we all know is more dangerous than a hungry mountain lion, it's has to be a hungry, angry, wounded, mountain lion, and this one was no exception to the rule.
I was out of cartridges and knew that my only chance was to stay on that sliding sledding buck and to hope to lose my crafty pursuer.
Down the mountain I went, on my makeshift sled, using a combination of antlers and pure body english to avoid boulders and trees, but the lion kept on gaining.
Finally, I shot out over a precipice and I knew that the game was soon to come to an end.
As I tumbled through sixty feet of nothing but air, I lost my gun, my knife, and the deer, and I wound up in deep snow, unable to move, at the base of the cliff, and that's when that big hungry old mountain lion jumped down and killed me.
And that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I don't mean to cast aspersions on your character, DIYASUB, but your little emoticon at the end kinda suggests you might be someone prone to stretching a point for the sake of the more-dramatic telling. Heck, your breathless account had plenty of drama already--no need to hit us over the head with it.

LionHo
 
There are bobcats in PA. If there was mountain lions there would be mountain lion tracks in the snow, and someone sure as hell would shoot one in deer season thinking it was a little yearling...guess what? I aint never seen one and I have found alot of bobcat tracks! NONE IN THIS STATE!
 
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I don't mean to cast aspersions on your character, DIYASUB, but your little emoticon at the end kinda suggests you might be someone prone to stretching a point for the sake of the more-dramatic telling. Heck, your breathless account had plenty of drama already--no need to hit us over the head with it.

LionHo



I wasnt the one that put the emoticon there LionHo,
it was the mountain lion that did it.
 
I'll just say that A lion could be ANYWHERE don't be so sure they aren't in PA.I grew up in northern Maine,and there was talk of lions there.A young male will travel miles and miles to find a mate.Although not probabal they could be any where,before we cuss someone for saying where they are we should look at the fact that it is possible.
 
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someone sure as hell would shoot one in deer season thinking it was a little yearling...



I would hope that a hunter would know he difference between a lion and a deer. If he don't or if he does not take the time to identify his target he should not be hunting.
 
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I grew up in northern Maine,and there was talk of lions there.



Where did you grow up in Maine? I spent a lot of time with friends in Winterville and Eagle Lake. I have not been up there in a long time but I loved that place.

BTW Quebec and NB have documented the existence of lions in their Provinces.
 
DIYASUB,its been a long time since i read that story.I laughed when i read it then and laughed even more,after you told it.LOL

I have traversed the mountains of PA most of my life and never seen a mountain lion,or ones tracks.I have hunted and trapped from the northern most part of the state,to the southern most part,and many,many,places in between.I am in my sixties now,and at least half my life was spent in the woods.I was born and raised in the mountains,where there was no other houses around.I had to walk two miles through the woods on a well worn path,before i would break out onto a road,to go to school.I wasn't allowed to go to school untill i was nine years old,because of that.Back then it was much,much,wilder and still never knowed anything about a mountain lion,just a few bears around.The only way i will believe it,is if i see one for myself,and even then,i might blame it on my old age and seeing things.LOL
 
I found mt.lion tracks near our deer camp in tioga county. I have found bobcat tracks on my land in dauphin county believe me I can tell the difference. Not to start anything FUD but I dont like it when people say things and cant back them up. Please dont take that the wrong way.
 
i have been reading alot of things lately about moutain lion sightings all over the web
were i live in indiana they was one sighted a couple hours away the dnr said it was an escaped pet but they have made no atempt to catch it and there was know one to be interviewed about their escaped pet i think it was wild and they dont want anyone going after it
well anyway i think bigcats are on the comeback everywere
 
Hi,
Yes, you are all right!! The Pa. Game Commission is tradeing Idaho mountian lions for groundhogs. A friend of a my brothers,uncles,great grandfathers, best friends, cousins, told me this just after he saw Big Foot step off a Space Ship with Elvis driving. This is worse then than any thing. PLEASE HELP!! SCARED IN Pa.????????????????
 
OH BTW,
I know where Jimmy Hoffa is!!!!!!!!!!!! He was eaten by a Pa. Mountian Lion. It was brought in from Ohio. The reason I know that is when I lifted up the tail it had a big "O" stamped underneath. HELP US!!!!!!!!!!
 
I was recently shown a didital pic of what would appear to be a mountain lion. This pic was shown to me by a close friend of the photographer. "Boy sure looks like one to me" was what my buddy said in defense of his friend. It was extremely out of focus,odd for a digital,and was taken in the snow in the big National Forest north of here. My buddy was obviously shaken and excited by the prospect of a lion in his back yard. "I've seen clearer pics of bigfoot" was my retort. Well, "He was probably excited when he took it" was the reply. I asked how the pics of the tracks turned out. "Well, there aren't any track pics" claimed my buddy. I couldn't believe a fella that close to a lion in the snow didn't get track pics! I agree with the majority of the people I have polled on the subject. I don't want breeding pairs of them here. I think a little "unknown" in the PA woods is great.Heaven knows we have the wild areas to support them. But, until I see conclusive hard and fast tangable evidence to the contrary, I say there aren't any. I'm not saying there CAN'T be any. I just haven't been convinced by what has been shown me. Again I say there COULD BE, and I would like to be the feller that gets the proof. I would pay the fine to end the debate. As I understand it, the law was writen a century ago pretaining to the eastern lion. I would have to see DNA testing to verify the occasional lion passing through here isn't an escaped western strain pet. Therefor not falling under the old eastern lion law. I'll just bet if you had a dead one, there would be a tatto on it or a chip in it someplace. Most likely behind the neck between the shoulderblades. I for one don't believe for a instant the insurance companies wouldn't try a trap and transfer here. I don't trust those buggers one iota.
 
Well get this one.. oh and i am a believer my dad and I saw one about 4 or 5 years ago... My dad is the president of his rotary club here in town the one night they had someone from the pa game commission come in to do a presentation. at the end someone asked if there are mountain lions in pa. his response.... yes
 
I find it funny to see so many people thinking mountain lions couldn't exist in PA. I am here in N.E. PA recently from CA. In CA mountain lions live within a mile of downtown Sacramento CA by the river. This is a heavily populated area with jogging trails with a city of 300,000 + people. No one sees them until one day someone is attacked. There were mountain lions found in Sacramento, tagged and moved east of the city into the foot hills of the sierra nevadas, then months later these cats have shown up on the peninsula west of San Fransisco. If any of you know the area, it's a great distance to travel over many large large interstates and freeways. I personally have seen a few lions while hunting in the mountains, and they can be very elusive and tracks are not always easily distinguished, but to think they can't are don't live in a state with such vast wilderness is a narrow minded. Large cats travel great distances for food and will move to where the food is. I've never seen as many deer in my whole life in the seven months i've been in PA. It's a natural thing for large cats to migrate to where the food is, and there is plenty of it in PA. Canada to NE PA isn't very far in terms of large cats. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
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