Comments on: Maned Lion Spotted in Colorado

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:56:23 +0000

Thank you for the link, MattBille…

I tend to agree with Kittenz. Looks like a lion to me. I’m sorry, but the front (facial features) do not match chows I’ve seen. A chow would not be that clear from a far distance. I know the eye can be “tricked.” But sometimes intuition is not always erroneous.

One good way to verify whether this is truly a lion or not would be to ask Ms. Harding-Davis how far away she was from this thing when she took the photo. Nobody apparently did. I also agree with MattBille about the paw print. Is it a lion, or dog??? Which is it, people?

Could it be that the El Paso County Shriff’s Dept are trying to downplay this or explain it away in order to avoid “panic?”

Has anybody really talked to the people down at the reserve? Really “talked” to them?

And could it also be that Freud’s apocryphal statement is sometimes true?

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar?”

By: mitchigan

mitchigan — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:31:24 +0000

My neighbor had a Chow to which he gave a “Lion Cut” to every summer. It was astounding how much the dog resembled a lion, even up close.

By: Munnin

Munnin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:54:56 +0000

“As to the paw print, a spokemsman for the Divison of Wildlife called it a lion. If the print was clear, an expert should not have confused canine with feline. If it was smudged or faint, he shouldn’t have been venturing an ID at all.

Matt”

My thoughts exactly. I would think there would be quite a discernable difference in a clearly imprinted track.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:36:46 +0000

The whole business is still, to my mind, a bit confused.

They are blaming a Great Pyrenees, which matches the size but not the rest of the description. Some have shaggy hair on their very robust shoulders, which might give the impression at a glance of a slight mane, but the color of this dog is white, varying no darker than a pale yellow. And they are not common dogs - someone should have reported one missing. (There’s a photo on dogbreedinfo.com of a slihgtly yellowish example, named, interestingly, Lion.)

As to the paw print, a spokemsman for the Divison of Wildlife called it a lion. If the print was clear, an expert should not have confused canine with feline. If it was smudged or faint, he shouldn’t have been venturing an ID at all.

Matt

By: hlw

hlw — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:28:52 +0000

Rare enough to get a report of a maned cat, but a photo as well. Awesome. It’s been a while since I logged in, but it’s the reports like this that keep me watching, after week upon week of tree trunks and bad suits. Hopefully, thunderbirds and kangaroos are coming next. We may have a fun summer yet. Keep up the good work guys.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:00:53 +0000

I have added a photograph with a lion demonstrating a tail up appearance, and other updates above.

By: Lightning Orb

Lightning Orb — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:59:50 +0000

They think the “lion” was a dog? I guess that’s good and bad; good the locals probably aren’t in danger of being attacked by some ginormous exotic one sunny unsuspecting morning, bad for credibility.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:46:26 +0000

A Great Pyrenees dog would not be a reddish color; they’re almost always white, sometimes with grayish or light tan-colored markings. They have heavy coats but they don’t really have manes like those of lions. I suppose that a large chow could be mistaken for a lion; the comment about the “big tail” makes me wonder. Chows look bigger than they really are and the often have magnificent manes. A chow’s tail looks big because of all that hair, but a lion’s tail does not look especially large considering the size of the animal. The photo posted in this article looks more like a lion than a chow to me but the photo isn’t really clear enough to be sure.

I agree with Matt: it’s a stretch to think that an African lion would just happen to be loose in an area where there is a nearby sanctuary which houses such cats. On the other hand, the fact that a sanctuary exists in the area might cause people to think “There’s a lion loose!” when they see a large shaggy animal from a distance.

Maybe it’s a chow in a lion suit ;).

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:27:22 +0000

Great work on the follow-ups of this story MattBille. Much appreciated
And yes, looking at the photo the tail of the “lion” seems kind of weird, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it ends up being a dog.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:58:45 +0000

We are now getting TV updates saying the search is being called off. Apparently the supposedly firm identification as a lion has been retracted. One station is saying the animal was a Great Pyrenees sheepdog, which would account for the large size but certainly does not have the reported mane.