Early Maned Mystery Cat Case?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 14th, 2011
Syracuse Daily Journal
Syracuse, New York
Thursday August 21, 1919
Lion-Headed Animal
Terror to Farmers
Raising Armed Force to
Hunt Strange Beast.
Auburn. Aug. 21.
Farmers living near Union Springs have become alarmed over an animal which roves about their farms. It has been seen by people living In the vicinity of Big Gulf, south of Union Springs, and is said to have a head like a lion. A cow owned by John Redman had its tail half bitten off one night recently, and It is thought to be the work of the strange beast. Farmers are getting their shotguns and pistols in working condition and expect to go out on hunting expeditions.
Credit for passing this news item along to Albert Rosales.
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Loren Coleman no longer writes for Cryptomundo. His archived posts remain here at Cryptomundo.
I’m from Syracuse and I’ve never heard of these places before. I can only assume that the names, Big Gulf and Union Springs, have changed with time. Does anyone have any further information?
Its clearly a Manticore.
Union Springs shows up in Google maps. It’s on the east shore of Cayuga Lake.
Well, we had mountain lions in NY, and it’s not impossible prehistoric lions wondered cross country to NY, though they are not in NY’s fossil record. But, since fossils only form, for the most part, if a body is in silt, we only have 4 percent of the fossil record.
Now, with that, it’s possible we could have maned lions in this state. But it’s more likely the sighting was about a lion that was owned or set free by someone living near by. In the turn of the century, it was in fashion for people to own exotic and exotic animals from far away lands.
One of my favorite cryptids. It’s the romantic in me I’m sure, but I like the idea of a few small pockets of cave lions roaming the more remote areas of North America.
Of course, given the number of African lions imported into the US over the last century or so, these may simply be descendents of a few of these cats that managed to established a small breeding population.
Here’s another intriguing possibility; the cats being seen are actually a hybrid population of released African AND native cave lions, with possibly some cougar and jaguar mixed in here and there. Hybrid sterility is a factor here, of course, but I’m sure stranger things have happened.