Posted on 08/29/2015 8:23:32 AM PDT by Theoria
Officials ponder changing cat’s status, causing roar of protest; sighting a ‘U.F.O.’
Diana Marchibroda insists she saw the beast near the Appalachian Trail in Virginia in May. From the woods sauntered a “tall, very sleek” mountain lion, she says. Ms. Marchibroda, a dentist who is 62 years old, says she and her silver-haired miniature schnauzer, Sophie, “both watched in awe.”
“My sighting is ABSOLUTE,” she wrote the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in July. “I know what I saw.”
Dozens of similar missives have poured into the agency as it proposes removing the Eastern mountain lion from the list of endangered species, where it has been since 1973. That change comes because the agency believes the creature no longer exists and would effectively render the subspecies extinct.
The roar of protest is from Easterners who contend the formidable felines still roam forests, fields and backyards from Maine to Georgia.
“There was no mistaking that long tail!” wrote one commenter to the agency in June, about an alleged sighting in New York. “Big as my bike,” promised another about a purported lion in Harrisburg, Pa.
The debate is “sort of in the realm of Bigfoot,” but with more scientific basis, says Noah Charney, an expert animal tracker in Western Massachusetts. The occasional mountain lion is spotted in the East, after wandering in from the West, but it is exceedingly uncommon and officials say people are reporting far more sightings than technically possible.
Also called cougars, pumas and panthers, mountain lions boast impressive tails, buff builds and often tawny-brown coats. They thrive in the West and have expanded eastward in recent decades, breeding in spots like South Dakota, with sightings increasing in the Midwest.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Thanks Theoria. Of course they're not extinct, good lord. They've seen better days of course, but ag land has been coming out of production since agricultural mechanization began (didn't have to feed the horses; then better strains of seed, and chemical agriculture) and woods are regrowing. More cover and less reliance on wild game (less than 100 years ago it was commonplace out here in the boonies to shoot dinner) means an increased food supply. The sightings of cougar (including melanistic large cats) has pretty uniformly been attributed to escapes from circuses and zoos (IOW, ludicrous nonsense non-explanation) or of exotic pets (mostly ditto) for decades, and the fact is, they've always been around but in small numbers. Like many cats, the hunting range of a cougar is pretty big. There have been wildlife camera shots of these overgrown kitties for years. One left its tracks right across the parents' garden about 20 years ago (iow, about 100 feet from here). Bobcats (that's our name for the American lynx) are similarly enjoying a bit of a revival, as are the fox, and there's a lot of overlap in the prey species. We had an outbreak of coyotes, but, uh, someone took care of that. They used to leave their obvious signs around here as well. No more.
In general they are reclusive. I've seen three in my life in the wild. The best time to spot one is near dusk or at night. I saw my last one at night running in front of me on a rural road near my house. They generally won't bother you or pets etc.
Two things you do want to watch for in east Tennessee is Coons which can rip you up good. They look cute but they can rip you or a pet dog up real good. The second problem is the non native Yotes or Coyotes which have invaded us over the last three decades. Yotes were never native to our area. They came east when for a year or two the Mississippi got real low and they crossed it.
I live in the Anderson, Knox, and Union County, triangle area. I've had a couple of confirmed Yote kills on my land and a neighbors land as well. They will feast on smaller dogs, cats, fawns, etc. If you have a bunch of them start yepling real close to you it is very unnerving LOL. I've seen Yotes every including on Illinois Ave in Oak Ridge coming off Oak Ridge Hiway. I chased one in my van one night. He jumped the wall and headed down Bethel Valley.
Mountain lions I think a very few have always been here and are likely in Royal Blue, Southfork, Catoosa, or Cherokee National Forest. I think many more are western that came here the same way the Yotes did they crossed the Mississippi at a historical low level. Then there is the unoffical morons who get one young, bring it home from out west, then after becoming scared of it release it to the wild somewhere.
The safest and most maligned critter we have? The Possum LOL. They'll hiss and sulk up but believe it or not rarely carry Rabies due to a lower body temperature making them hosting it not likely. Coons are a different story.
Even black bears have been moving more this year between the Smokeys and Cumberland mountains One was spotted on Norris Freeway several times about a month ago and another one up in Jacksboro. Last year a black bear was killed on I-75 and Callahan Rd and that's inside Knoxville city limits. Yotes are there also.
No bear pics? I’ve had a couple of trail cams that were supposed to be invisible infrared flash but I think bears can see it because I always got shots of a big double barrel nose smelling the cameras. The elk, deer, wolves, antelope, coyotes all ignored them but not the bears. Those broke and I hung a new one last week, we’ll see how it behaves.
Yep. 911 the DNR guys. LOL!
Thanks for the info. We’re near Oak Ridge and have a lot of wildlife. I’m glad we don’t need to worry about the bobcat.
We’re all too familiar with the coons — the reason we have six indoor cats now. Some feral babies and their mother were being tormented by raccoons back in 2011. They’d hide in our French drain but that couldn’t last. Hubby shot a couple but more appeared. Big, nasty, and bold. Once we brought in the cats, no more coons.
We do hear coyotes often. It is a creepy sound when they all start yowling. When we lived in So. Cal., they were so bold they’d sashay down the streets of our subdivision, but we haven’t actually seen any here. Sure do hear ‘em though.
We’ve had possums on the screen porch a couple times. Not scary — kind of cute in a weird way.
“I sent a copy of the picture to the North Carolina Wildlife Commission but they have not commented or answered my email to them”
And they never will because for some reason unknown to you and me the NDR people swear to Buddha that there are no Black Panthers or cougars in the South. There are constant sightings of them so I don’t know what the big deal is about it.
Nice pictures. Those three can sound like a dozen when they yelp together. Last winter I had some sound off about 100-200 ft from my house while I was outside. A few blast of 357 and Silence followed. LOL.
“jag and the puma are the same cat.”
No one’s a puma and one’s a jaguar different sub species.
The ones in the South are Mountain Lions with a black coat.
To the west of you about 15 miles I'm guessing down on highway 58 that the Turnpike runs into just past the interstate is a Tiger Haven. It's between Kingston and Lenoir City toward Lenoir City right before the Roane and Loudon Co line. I have a cousin that lives close to it. You can stand in his yard and hear them roar. I don't get down there often.
We have Bob cats in our suburban neighborhood here in Atlanta. Last year I heard a kitty meowing and got up and went out on the deck after midnight with the flashlight and a mother Bobcat had stashed her kit up in a woodpile next door while she sneaked down to the lake to hunt for a duck. It was so cute running around and then my flashlight brought Mom back up. I finally left them alone and went back in.
Hunted Mountain lions in CA from 1962 tell 1968 in the Angeles Nation Forest out side of Sunland CA. They would come down and attack farm animals in the Big River Ranch area. I know what one looks like dead and alive so when I saw one in AL. in a WLMA I knew what it was. Yes it was black not tan but was a cougar none the less. Have seen black panthers in GA. and they are smaller but are still a cougar. Have hunted man and beast so I know my target when I see it. 3/5 GET SOME
People have been recording history in this country for 500 years or so. Nobody ever has confirmed a black mountain lion in that time. None shot, trapped, snared, run over. Zero. The melanistic phase does not occur in mountain lions. If you see a black one, you didn’t see a mountain lion.
Any old garbage hound that will run a housecat will also run a bobcat or lion, they all smell the same to him. It isn’t hard to put a lion up a tree. Some of those southern boys should go out and tree a few black lions and make the history books. Shouldn’t take a long morning to accomplish if they are as plentiful as anecdotes would have you believe.
Was it a Bobcat or Manx cat? Some Manx look like Bobcats because of color and markings also about the same size.
No these guys out in front of our house were about the size of a Bobcat but black with long tails. We see Bobcats in our neighborhood all the time and they are nothing like this. Their call is completely different. Their kits are more like a really strong meow. Not like a child crying.
No these guys out in front of our house were about the size of a Bobcat but black with long tails. We see Bobcats in our neighborhood all the time and they are nothing like this. Their call is completely different. Their kits are more like a really strong meow. Not like a child crying.
OK I was just wondering.
I live in the NC mts. and often heard coyotes yipping and carrying on last year. This year they’ve been absent.
Wait till late fall and winter. About sundown and sunrise and about two hours after sunset and an hour after sunrise. Then again hopefully you got lucky. The states east of the Mississippi should have put a bounty on them three decades ago.
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