If the coyote did it, there is absolutely no reason the mountain lion couldn’t. They need much bigger territories, and are much more cryptic, which means the expansion – if there has been one which no reasonable person in command of the information would bet against – has been going on longer than anyone thinks.

If you have little kids, and hike with them, do not let them out of your sight. Just saying.

Before someone says”they were probably bobcats”they were not,as both sightings were in daylight and my line of sight was not obstructed in any way.I was easily able to make out the ears and tail that is almost as long as the body.the 1st one was about 60 yds and the 2nd was 12 yds tops. if you know the difference between a mountian lion and a bobcat, you would never make the mistake of misidentifying them.

I have seen my share of bobcats over the years,witch are really making a comeback.

People don’t realize that there are less people in the woods today than ever.
Hunting is a dying sport,less people go hiking,picking berries,etc.. especially since the outbreak of Lyme’s disease.
Docile animals today have able space to hunt and stay out of sight.

I know we have cougars/pumas in Pennsylvania. And I see no reason why they wouldn’t spread out to neighboring states as their populations increase. Each litter can be anywhere from 2 – 6 kits, say each year half survive to reproduce. So 1-3 per year, say a general reproductive span of 5 years; so average 15 kits per year from each single female. And, like feral cats, those numbers increase exponentially.

Cougars tend to be solitary and depending on the availability of prey their territories can be anywhere between 25 square miles, up to 100 square miles. I am assuming low predation rates as they tend to be apex predators and I don’t think their populations are large enough at this point that the males would need to fight/kill each other over territories or mates.

While it is possible that some yahoo was keeping a pair of dangerous felid as pets, the chances of both of them escaping at the same time is (I would hope) very high and while most cougars are reported to be of the “I won’t eat it unless I kill it myself” school of thought, several California Cougars have been documented scavenging. and as these versatile predators eat anything from insects to amphibians, fowls to large mammals they can pretty much survive anywhere in the continental USA.

Add to that the ‘burden’ that many Park and EPA employees have placed on them to NOT encourage the official census of this animal due to public fear, land rights and other monetary concerns and its not surprising that we don’t hear more about these animals from official sources. However a quick google shows an amazing amount of eye witness testimony and even a good amount of reasonable photos showing these large felids where they are not ‘officially’ supposed to be. My guess is the media got a hold of this before EPA could deny it was anything other than a fluke. The necropsy will probably tell us more than any of our guessing can and I will be interested to see if the animal shows any signs of professional vet care, maybe a microchip or other identifying marker, or if it shows the wear and tear of a life in the wild.