Comments on: New Maine Mountain Lion Incidents

By: colin

colin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:06:31 +0000

Hello everyone,
I just read the article on Loren Coleman in the Portland Daily Sun. I was drawn to it because I’ve always had an interest in Bigfoot, but the sub-headline really got my attention. “Maine mountain lion”. I believe I may of saw a mountain on my way to work just over a month ago.
On my long commute from Bridgton to Portland a large cat ran across the road in front of my car in the town of Casco. It was a solid tan color and about the size of a large dog. And the head was definitely feline. I instantly thought ” Oh my god! An escaped zoo lion!” But then thought of the possibility of a mountain lion or bobcat. I told my friends who were pretty skeptical and all but forgot about it til today. I spent some time looking at pictures of bobcats, lynx, and fisher cats earlier and I’m pretty sure it was none of those. I honestly thought there were mountain lions in Quebec and maybe one wandered south. I had no idea they were wiped out in the Eastern U.S.
Anyway didn’t know were else to post this. Great site too.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:28:21 +0000

zigoapex,

I, also, believe that pumas were never completely extirpated from the Appalachian Mountains. I think that there has been a remnant resident population all along, and now that the forests and the deer and elk herds are recovering, the puma population is also recovering. Western pumas also appear to be dispersing eastward and possibly Florida pumas northward as well.

By: zigoapex

zigoapex — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:06:47 +0000

I live in North East PA, in the Appalachians and I had 2 sightings over the years, both in daylight, one in 1985 crossing state rt 6 about a mile east of the Archbald pot hole and another sighting in 2003 about 5 miles west of the pothole on state rt 347.
The first sighting was a mature one, I was with a friend traveling west , about 75 yds in front of us, it crossed the 3 lane rt 6 in 3 bounds, I never saw an animal so fast and agile in my life. the second sighting, was a young one, it still had spots on it,(60 to 70 lbs maybe)It ran right out in front of me and I slammed on the breaks and it stopped and tried to go back the way it came, but then turned around and crossed the road in front of me about 15 yds away.I had people say that it could have been a bobcat, but I lived and hunted in the area my whole life and seen my share of bobcats, and if you know the difference ,I have no idea how someone can confuse the two .
I met a man a couple months ago that got a picture of one in the area and had herd of other sightings over the years.
I believe they travel the Appalachians and that’s why we have been hearing of sightings in the North East states.

By: zigoapex

zigoapex — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:05:22 +0000

I met a man a couple months ago that got a picture of one in the area and had herd of other sightings over the years.

By: Arushmij

Arushmij — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:37:11 +0000

5 years ago in August, there was a rare hurricane/flood here in Asheville, NC. It was quite warm and the power was off for almost two weeks on our street. The neighbors and I saw a whole lot of odd critters while we were sleeping on our porches in the cool night air.

One of those nights, a wet mountain lion came up the hill from the river and went sloshing right down the middle of the street. It was a little longer than the drains in the curb, so I’d say about 4 feet. It climbed a tree two houses down and sat there for a few minutes looking up at the streetlight.

Plenty of other people saw it, and all of us were awakened by the low growls of our dogs. I have a dog that will charge and chase a bear, but she didn’t want any of that cat. Just a low growl.

By: Piltdown

Piltdown — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:45:41 +0000

Augusta? Yikes! Maybe I should warn my sister-in-law!

[Slight digression] As a child growing up in Northern Maine, I recall us kids scaring each other with tales of a “black panther ” stalking the local woods. I dismissed these stories as an adult, but now I start to wonder…

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:00:03 +0000

I agree these sightings seem very credible.

Glad to see the Mountain Lion apparently making a comeback in Maine. Wildlife are a hardy bunch.

And CryptoInformant 2.0:

Thanks for the factoid!!!

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:57:37 +0000

Fhqwhgads,
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, and for a good while after, the mountain lion ranged the width and breadth of North America. If your interested in human interactions with mountain lions, their decline, and their place in American culture, I recommend Mountain Lion: An unnatural history of pumas and people, by Chis Bolgiano. It’s a quick, interesting read.

By: CryptoInformant 2.0

CryptoInformant 2.0 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:21:18 +0000

This seems, thus far, like a fairly credible sighting report, and I certainly hope that these big cats are making something of a comeback in their old range.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Pumas are the largest species of cat capable of purring?

By: kittenz

kittenz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:08:36 +0000

I saw a mountain lion in 1992 near Cave Run lake in eastern Kentucky, and I know a lot of other people who say they have seen them. Most of them wouldn’t know a puma from a Persian, but some of the stories I would bet the house on.

One friend saw two pumas together when he was camping near Cumberland Lake, down near the Tennessee border (maybe they were dispersing yearlings; siblings often stay together for a few months after splitting with Mom). Another saw a large adult puma on a reclaimed strip mine site; there were elk nearby and he said it appeared to have been stalking the elk.

And don’t forget the puma kitten that was road-killed in Floyd County, KY. The man who ran over it said that there was another small one and a big one that disappeared into the roadside brush. DNA testing suggested that at least one of that kitten’s parents was a wild puma (it also had South American DNA too, which probably means that at some point in its recent ancestry there was a captive puma).

Friends, the pumas are here. In the south-central Appalachians they were never completely extirpated. I don’t know how many of you may have ever been hiking or climbing in the Red River Gorge, or the Breaks Interstate Park, or the Cumberland Trail, but some of those areas are as rugged as any place you’ll find in the US of A. This part of eastern Kentucky is a temperate rain forest. There are plenty of caves and canyons and other areas, such as the thick laurel and rhododendron groves, in places where the mountains are nearly perpendicular to the streams and valleys below. And everywhere, lush cover. Deer by the hundreds of thousands (at least), a large elk herd, wild turkeys, and (introduced) wild boars and goats. The pumas have their pick and they don’t have to come to bait or roadkill.