Comments on: Prominent Pennsylvania Puma Seeker Dies

By: epuma

epuma — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 23:22:33 +0000

Loren:
Thank you for such a fitting tribute to our close friend Roger Cowburn who’s search for wild cougar evidence in northern Penns Woods lasted from the 1960s thru late 2005. He was one of the last true dedicated researchers and a excellant tracker who found the necessary data to prove cougars & black panthers continue to survive in northern Pennsylvania.

By: epuma

epuma — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 18:45:26 +0000

Thank you Loren for such an excellent obit on Roger. He would have been very proud of this article.
Roger was one of the best of the best. He will be greatly missed, especially by us (Eastern Puma Research Network), as he was PA Chief Field Researcher.
He gave us data on where a cougar may have been killed. This weekend, special search parties are seeking it.

By: cryptohunter65

cryptohunter65 — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 20:48:39 +0000

Claims have been made that the last lion was killed on Penns Creek Mt. in Snyder County, PA. I feel that it was premature for the Game Commission to declare the lion population extinct in PA. Such a secrative animal could easily survive undetected, especially in the northern regions of the state. Livestock predation would not be an issue. Freshyill is quite right, PA is loaded with deer. You have to understand that many in Pennsylvania regard the PA Game Commission as a joke. Several years ago, rumours were running that the Game Commission were importing Mountain Lion into the state to control deer population. They denied this but there have been a lot of sightings since then.

I complained about this for two reasons. One, you do not release a dangerous animal into state parks without warning the public. Two, western lions will contaminate the gene pool of eastern lions. Your chances of finding an Eastern Cougar and proving it to be a separate species genetically decrease every year.

By: flacats

flacats — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:40:39 +0000

Thanks for this article. I have found four great sites for those interested in the Eastern Cougar or my favorites: the panther or catamount.
Here’s the sites:
The Panther Project
The cougar
Eastern Puma Research
Cougar Network

By: freshyill

freshyill — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:57:28 +0000

The Inquirer seems to be full of crap on this. “Nittany” was around before Penn State, but it’s certainly been used by the school (and half of the local businesses within 20 miles) for years. If anything today, Nittany is least a powerful brand for Penn State.

Here’s a little bit on the popular local legend on the etymology of the word.

PSU offers this quick study on Nittany.

As a side note (or back to the real point, anyway), Pennsylvania has a real, two-fold, deer problem. The first part is that there are too many deer. The second part is that many (but certainly not all) hunters refuse to recognize this problem. Gary Alt, the former Game Commission director, was basically driven out because he wanted to decrease the state’s deer herd. Hopefully hunters will come to their senses, because there are a lot of dead deer on the side of the road in Pa.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 02:02:58 +0000

The source for the origin of “Nittany Lion” being due to the last puma killed on the mountain named Nittany (at the end of Nittany Valley) is the Philadephia Inquirer, January 24, 2006. This was repeated in other news dispatches due to three new mountain lion cubs from South Dakota being placed at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Perhaps the media was creating a new urban myth, or that’s what someone at PSU wanted to see in print, but that’s the “Nittany Lion” story given there.

Other websites have other stories, of course.

By: shill

shill — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 00:08:56 +0000

The name Nittany Lion probably had nothing to do with real mountain lions in the area but more with a totem for school spirit. I’m pretty sure there was no local basis for this name. Of course, this has no bearing on whether mountain lions are still roaming around PA - just a sidenote.
From a PSU alumni…