Comments on: A Cougar Conspiracy?

By: kittenz

kittenz — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 22:42:52 +0000

This article got me to wondering about Kentucky’s wildlife laws, in researching those laws, I find that I was wrong about Kentucky laws regulating big cats: it appears that I was behind the times, so to speak. Kentucky has gone from having almost no restrictions against keeping non-native animals, to very tough restrictions.

Kentucky passed laws regulating the sale, breeding, and keeping of exotic cats (and other wildlife) in 2005, which are among the strongest and most restrictive laws in the country. People who already own exotic pets were grandfathered in, provided that their animals are properly housed and cared for under the new laws, but the new legislation makes it very tough to legally acquire or keep exotic cats in the commonwealth of Kentucky.

I am not sure whether pumas are considered “exotic” under the new laws. They are “animals native to Kentucky, but which are considered to have been extirpated from the state”. If such animals would be “unable to exist under natural circumstances if released into the wild” then they are considered to be “exotic”.

Since pumas’ natural prey is mainly deer, but also elk, rabbits, and woodchucks, and turkeys, all of which exist in the wild in Kentucky, a puma which was released could conceivably survive very well in the wild, provided it could teach itself to hunt. I’m trying to get some more precise information about the pumas’ legal status in Kentucky and I’ll post it as soon as I get reliable information.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:16:50 +0000

I just read a post in another blog about a woman who just saw a roadkilled puma, I think she said it was on Dec. 14, about 40 miles from Lexington, KY, beside the Bluegrass Parkway (which crosses central Kentucky).

There were no pictures, and I have not been able to find any more info on it anywhere. Has anyone else seen anything about that sighting?

By: MichiganJay

MichiganJay — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 05:54:33 +0000

I have been watching the stories of cougar sightings in Michigan the last few years and have learned a few things. Cougars are solitary animals. If you see 2, they are either mating or a female/cub combo. The only predator for a cougar is another cougar, where a larger male could kill a territorial rival. And speaking of territories, a cougar has a 50 mile radius. They will travel long distances to establish their own territories to avoid conflicts with others. A juvenile cougar in a new territory may consider anything prey. They have no fear of humans having never been hunted. There have been credible sightings in the midwest from Iowa to Ohio, which suggests a migration from western states being plausible. The truth of the matter could be a combined effort of western migration, eastern species remnants, and release of exotic pets. It is obvious that they exist. Regardless how they got there, they should be acknowledged for safety of both, people and cats.

By: Equine Fan

Equine Fan — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 04:18:15 +0000

I lived in New York nearly my whole life and I know for a FACT we have wild roaming Mountain Lions in the woods. I have seen two dead ones shot by farmers, one of which had a tracking collar on and was imediantly taken by the DEC, the other was turned over to the DEC. Both cats had been killed while eating dead livestock.

I dont see why there has been a big “cover up” of sorts by the Conservation. Pumas have been around the east for years and as the weather seems to be getting milder each year many species are coming back. There was actually a Moose sighted in northern NY this year and also a couple Elk, though I beleive the elk had escaped.

As for the big cats ending our deer population, I can safely say that we are over run in the Catskills and the DEC has been doing controlled removal hunts for the past few years. I doubt a small population of Lions will put a damper on the population any..

By: steveg3474

steveg3474 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:24:02 +0000

I have talked to farmers here in southwest Ohio who in the 1960’s had cougars on there property. I talked to one guy who went bowhunting one morning. He got in his stand, as it got light he noticed a lump in a tree about 50yds. away. The “lump” climbed down and walked off. He said it was a big cat. I have no doubt that they were here. Whether they still are I don’t know.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:54:37 +0000

Bob K., we have Cougars in NJ. There have been several reports that I have read of, including deer kills and shot deer found with healed claw marks on them. It is also likely that some of the clawed footprints said to have been made by the Jersey Devil were in fact Cougar tracks. My best friend’s mother saw one as roadkill once up in North Jersey, while down in South Jersey, his wife’s father shot several on his farm back in the 50’s or 60’s. They’re here, they’re near, get used to it.

By: tapper

tapper — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:47:13 +0000

My buddy and I just saw another cougar this weekend in Sullivan County, NY, directly across the Delaware River from PA. That makes three sightings in less than two years. They weren’t bobcats, since we’ve seen a couple of those as well. One cougar was quite large, over 130 lbs for sure, while the other two (could have been the same one for all we know) were a little larger than our chocolate Labrador retriever with a tail as long as its torso. They’re definitely around the area.

By: DWA

DWA — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:08:22 +0000

Ignorance is just as prevalent among scientists and wildlife pros as among the rest of the population.

And we, and they, are possibly the most ignorant, all of us, about what we “know.” When something doesn’t fit the paradigms we’ve set up, a natural reaction is to just presume it ain’t so.

Which makes it to me pretty plausible that mountain lions have reoccupied a significant portion of their former Eastern range. After all we have more forest in the East now than we did after the Revolution. Our population may be much bigger. But it’s largely much more ignorant about nature than it was back when people hunted for survival, not recreation and a dinner table change of pace.

When you’re somewhat removed from nature — and even hunters today are much more so than hunters once were — you can miss stuff that’s right under your figurative nose.

If a ten-foot ape can elude scientific discovery for this long, it ought to be a snap for a stealthy, 80-to-100-pound cat, ferpetesake.

By: titantim

titantim — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 14:40:51 +0000

If you don’t think the Wildlife depts. in some states can stonewall on certain issues, I can assure you that they do! Here in South Carolina, in Anderson and Abbeville counties starting in the early 1980’s, we were seeing several large cats. I personally have seen a very large black cat I would estimate at over 100lbs. I was within 20 feet of this cat for about 2 mins. I have seen these cats 7 times myself and there are a ton of people besides me who saw them. There was also another or maybe 2 more that were not entirely black, more like a blotchy brown/ black. We have observed these sitting on a hill while my neighbor bush hogged his fields. I assumed they were catching rats and rabbits he scared out of the fields. Anyway, we tried to get the SC wildlife dept. to investigate this many times and we always got the same story, the cats don’t exist and we were seeing bobcats. They never acknowledged that the cats were here, even with many, many eyewitnesses, tracks and lots of people hearing their screams.

By: CleoDavis

CleoDavis — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 14:07:03 +0000

Great website- I would like to share a couple of stories related to the PA cougar.

My uncle deer hunts in the Mountains in Central – Western part of PA and had a very clear sighting 4 years ago. He watched a large cougar walk past his stand. The sighting lasted about 2 minutes and he observed the animal through a 10 power scope when it was further away and with the naked eye when it was closer. It was first observed at around a hundred yards and came as close a forty yards before walking away. The terrain was fairly open so he had clean unobstructed views through most of the sighting.

Others in his deer camp have had partial sightings where they thought they saw cougar but this was the first clear sighting.

My uncle is very credible and does not make up or exaggerate stories. He is a very serious guy and I have no doubt that he saw a cougar.

Another story I want to pass on is one told to me by a deer hunting guide in Garrett County – the far western portion of Maryland. This area is very rural, mountainous, and surrounded by western PA to the North and West Virginia to the south.

The guide told me he found a deer carcass high in a tree in one of his remote hunting areas. He also says he has found deer carcasses that were in various stages of being eaten in the same area on other occasions. He has never observed a cougar first hand but he can not think of what else could possibly get an adult deer that high in a tree.