My wife and I were walking the dog around 4:30 and had gotten around 40 yards from the house when she said "What is THAT!" I looked up in time to see what looked like a large (50-60 lbs) cat bound across the road about 65 yds in front of us.

We've occasionally coyotes when on our walks but this was no coyote. It was very dark with a squarish head and a straight tail about 3/4ths of it body length long. The fields are clear this time of year so we could watch it run around 150 yards to the woods. It was also running on our side of a fence row so we had a very good idea of the distance from us. Which also means we were comparing it's size to the fence posts behind it.

Made me wish I was carrying more than my M37 Airweight except that it was obviously more interested in getting into the woods than in us. Though it did look our direction a few times as it ran.

hmm sounds like a bobcat of some sort.

Not with that long a tail....

__________________
Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

Maybe all of the animals that escaped that guys preserve did'nt get
killed or captured. How close are you to that area?



chuck

__________________
They hold no Quarter

Bobcats don't have short tails and they certainly don't weigh 50 - 60 pounds. It sounds like you just got a glimpse of a mountain lion. They're around and are spotted now and then here in PA. Very !

Sound like a mountain lion you saw. Yeah supposedly we don't have them in NY either, but I know three guys who disagree.

This is a 48 pound Bobcat my son took two years ago this month...





I bet what you saw was a catamount or moutain lion. With a tail that long, there really isn't much else it could be.

I'd keep a close eye on your dog for a while...

Drew

I'm about 50 miles from where all those animals escaped however there are/were some exotic animal keepers in our area. I don't think it was a Bob Cat because of the long tail. That was what I was noticing because the tail was pretty much the same diameter the whole length. When the animal ran the tail was held pretty much straight back behind it with just the last 1/5th of the tail moving as it ran. Most canines have shorter tapered tails with some curve to them.

MOUNTAIN LION!!!
Ok--What is the preferred weapon for a person when walking in Mountain Lion Country??

Is a "Hiking In Bear Country" weapon too big or ok for Mountain Lions?
What type ammo?
If walking with your wife and dog, and you have only a Beretta .22 pistol
do you shoot your wife in the knee where you and the dog can escape safely or do you shoot yourself in the knee where your wife and dog can escape safely? (alway protect the dog, a good dog is difficult to find).

Sebago Son that is an impressive bob cat!

Baby sasquatch maybe?

That is indeed an impressive bobcat.
teesur.

Thanks! Wish I could say it was me....

The boys actually took two that day...



100 fawns were greatful the following spring...

So were you able to outrun your wife for the front door? Who won the foot race?

Beat me to it!

Sounds like a young cougar. Better watch the kids and pets, especially.

Walnutred,

I don't know what part of Ohio you are from, but there have been IDNR confirmed sightings of mountain lions/cougars as far north as central Indiana the past couple of years.

Drew,

Wow! The 48 pounder is a BIG kitty!

Well, now you have an excuse to go purchase a 4" 629.

Yup George it is... Spine shot with a .223 out of a red dot sighted AR-15. Came to a coyote call.

I say IS because the kitty is still in the freezer awaiting a trip to the taxidermist....

El chupacabra? j/k...There are folks around here that are sure they've seen cougars as well. Supposedly the "eastern cougar" is a little smaller than the western ones.

Now that's a big bobcat! I'd much rather run across one of them cats than a long tailed one. I do some on the ground camping at my place. With increased sightings of the big cats in central Oklahoma, it gives me pause to consider that I may not be at the top of the food chain when camping. My Benelli M2 with 000 buckshop and M65 helps me sleep at night.

__________________
Isaiah 55:8-9
Phil. 4:13

??? If it was running away from you and not harming you, why shoot something that is so rare in the eastern US? I would love to see one in the wild.I have seen the tracks, and heard them but that's all. No I am not a anti-hunter, have hunted all my life, but would never shoot at anything that rare.

The interesting part of all this is the wildlife departments all deny they exist. Just a sighting by an individual isn't enough for them to go to all kinds of trouble protecting them. We've had numerous sightings in KY and they won't believe it. Even tracks and half a deer being carried away and the other half in a driveway isn't enough.

The big black thing we have up here was pretty convincingly ID'd as a wandering black bear. They finally gave in and accepted it.

If you call the local papers, they'll assume you're crazy. Might be worth the time and effort to call your local wildlife officer. Just so he's on notice that one is being seen. I didn't see the critter, I saw his tracks, maybe 100 feet of them as he walked up hill. I called and the guy was all ears and wanted to see the tracks for himself.

So we took him to where we'd seen them and he agreed, they were cat tracks, and big ones. The pads were bigger than my palms. But the verdict was it only might have been a mountain lion. Just as easily could be a large exotic pet someone was exercising. Who knows. The only convincing way is to have a carcass, and then they'd claim you killed the only one!

Good you saw it, sorry you didn't get a photo (cell phone pix are better than none.)

__________________
Dick Burg

A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a friend and former editor of some of my freelance work, who'd worked on the University of Chicago Press' Cougar, Ecology & Conservation, by Maurice Hornocker, the preeminent cougar biologist, and Sharon Negri, about whom I know next to nothing... Some of its contributors are mutual acquaintances, and, we had a little chat about the buzz around mountain lion sightings in Eastern states and the Midwest. Having not yet read the book, I nevertheless advanced my opinion that there are, in fact, mountain lions occupying areas where authorities having jurisdiction over wildlife don't care to admit it, and for many good reasons. She concurred. I've posted about this issue several times previously, so won't repeat here.

REAL big kitty.

I crossed paths with a black panther while bow hunting several years ago. I was in a tree stand and it passed by me at about 15 yards. There was no opportunity for a bow shot and my Colt .357 was buried under a heavy jacket.

Even here in Texas a lot of authorities still deny their existence. The land owner didn't believe me either until his neighbor saw it a few months later. We also found a couple dead calves on the ranch.

Many years ago, right after I-10 was opened beyond Lake City, FL, my wife and I were driving from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. Somewhere west of Lake City, a very LARGE cat with a long tail jumped over the fence on the right side of the highway, pretty much cleared the asphalt on both sides of the Interstate and was gone over the left side fence back into the woods. Having come to Florida in the Navy, I did not know, until told, that there was such a thing as a Florida Panther. Something that not a lot of people in Florida have ever seen. I consider myself fortunate to have seen one, even if only for a few seconds.

CW

__________________
μολὼν λαβέ

Here in Michigan we've had sporadic reports of Cougars for going on over 20 years now. Until recently the state DNR used to routinely claim that these sightings were simply people mistaking house cats for cougars. Now that game cameras have become both common and cheap, the DNR is finally admitting that there are some cougars in Michigan. Makes it pretty hard to call it a house cat when they are on camera dragging a full sized deer.

If your in south Texas it could have been a black jaguar. If something bad happens to it, don't be around, just saying.

__________________
James L. "Jim" Rhiner

Technically a black panther doesn't exist.

Those of us who have seen them think otherwise

jaguarundi
Surprised no one has mentioned this. We "don't" have them in Alabama, either. Ask my wife, and several of my friends!

__________________
War Eagle! '10 BCS & '13 SEC

Yep for an animal that does not exist in Alabama, there are either two of them that frequent an area within a couple of miles of my home or there are a couple of 100 lb housecats roaming around. My youngest son and my daughter have seen them several times. My Dad and Grandparents have talked about them all my life and have been seen every ten years or so for the last 90+ years.
I haven't seen one yet but have been within 50 yards of one on two occasions. Once when I was 12, several of us kids were walking a fire lane way back in the woods and even though we had been seeing 6" tracks in the mud didn't think twice about it until it let out a hair raising scream just around a curve in the firelane. And yes shoeleather does pop when you are at full run. Last winter I was walking back to the house one night (100') from my shop and heard a deep rumbly noise on the other end of the building that I can only describe as 10 times louder than I have ever heard a domesticated cat make while protecting a mouse kill from other cats.
Seeing and hearing is believing,
Larry
P.S. Please leave the Bobcats alone. I have a place I hunt in one of the Management Areas that has a pair of them and I enjoy seeing them as much as deer.

I saw a Cougar one night in eastern NY/ PA area. No mistake what it was, my headlights lit it up well. And "Painter Cats" are known to folks in the Appalachian area, but the government says these animals haven't existed since the early 1930s.

I have heard what I thought was a bobcat off and on for several years, and only saw a glimpse of a large cat twice around twilight. Found him dead on my property last spring, hit by a car. He was large, but not as large as the earlier pic.

If someone has seen a mt lion, it is safe to guess he isn't by himself.

...got this TrailCam picture of a west coast bobcat out here north of Longview, WA. They have a very short tail, almost looks cropped.

Panthers "don't exist in Georgia" either, according to the state . . . even though hunters I know captured one on their trail cam in Laurens County in central Georgia where I live.

Then, someone shot one and killed it in Troup County in 2009. Bad move . . . it cost him dearly. Turned out the big cat was SIX HUNDRED MILES from his known territory in Florida, according to genetic testing.

Yes, they travel huge distances . . .

Georgia hunter fined for shooting rare Florida panther | The Augusta Chronicle

According to ODNR cougars do not exist in Ohio either, at least not the feline kind. However a year or so ago a large cat was shot on the east coast that was genetically linked to the continental divide region. The backtracked a list of alleged sightings and it had traveled through PA, OH, IN, and several other states between here and there. So obviously they at least travel through Ohio.

If you've ever been to the swap meet at the Scioto County Fairgrounds (out by the Supermax in Lucasville), there's folks come out of the hollars with all sorts of critters that aren't supposed to exist in Ohio!

I'd say the OP saw a mountain lion.

The PA Game Commission denies the existence of mountain Loins in the Allegheny Mountains. This flies in the face of hundreds of sightings by experienced hunters and trappers. Of course, the PA GC denied the existence of Coyotes for years until they began showing up as road kills, or more often, killed by hunters as wild dogs chasing deer. Now we have open season on Coyotes as they are becoming a nuisance to farmers.

It's not necessary to shoot your wife in the knee IF you can run faster then her ! The dog can !!!!!

__________________
regards....roger (no sig)

Most of the Florida Cougars are sighted around the Gulf Coast Resort Beaches. Usually in the company of one or more young males.

He may not have been that far afield since there are panthers in the Osceola National Forest and in the rural areas west of Lake City right along the Georgia/Florida state line even though maps only show them in South Florida. I don't think the cats pay much attention to maps or state lines. IIRC they released some panthers in the North Florida area that had been crossbred with western cougars. Supposed to give a dose of new blood and make them resistant to disease. Some of them had tracking collars and I do remember that one was killed in some manner (shot I think).

Jimmy, their natural habitat though tends to be in the Palm Beach area. Saw one in the Jacksonville Airport one Friday night carry off a fresh capture (from another ticket counter) on our Jacksonville-West Palm flight. She did let him go after the weekend though.

CW

__________________
μολὼν λαβέ

Well,why do so many wildlife agencies deny their existence when so many people have seen them? I,and a number of my friends and acquaintances,have seen them on more than one occasion.
f.t.

__________________
South Carolina-God's country

I read a book about that and the author said that the biologists and bureaucrats don't want to have to form programs to manage them.

The book was about cougars in Michigan, I think, or one of the adjoining states. But the attitude of the game and fish agencies seems common.

walnutred,
If you can get a plaster cast of the cat's track it may help convince the wildlife department biologist that a cougar inhabits your area.
I have seen a jaguarundi on two occasions here in Florida but the state wildlife commission denies that they exisit because they have no physical evidence that they exist.
Maybe some other folks in your area have seen the cat or found evidence of a kill made by the animal. A lot of hunters use game trail cameras now a days, check with them if the area is used for hunting.

__________________
"Life is short, hunt hard"

I usually don't tell of my UFO sighting for the same reasons stated above. I'll share my story here because no one judges or will call me crazy.
I saw two yellow orbs one night. They seemed to follow me. I don't know what they were but I'll just call them UFO's.

Unidentified Feline Objects

I'm pretty sure they were panther eyes from the size and distance between. The cats were spotted before in the same area.

__________________
Dum vivo cano

Sounds like a Wampus cat to me.

__________________
Misty

There was an article in the local paper titled "their here but not officially".
It was about Mountain lions in North east in Pennsylvania. The assistant director of the DWGNRA saw one. One of my friends saw one also.

Just a matter of time until one gets hit by a car. And they'll have their proof.

No matter what physical proof one has, the wildlife departments in states where lions "shouldn't" will be deny their existence. This same mentality holds true here in PA in with coyotes.

I worked for the PA Game Commission as a wildlife conservation officer for many years and had investigated many reports of mountain lions from people livinging in the mountainous regions of our district. These people reported seeing large cats, brown or tan in color, with long tails. Some went so far as to find and photograph the tracks. There is no mistaking what that animal would be yet, when I reported these sightings to the regional office, I was told it was impossible - "there are no mountain lions in PA". They just didn't want to deal with it unless someone gets hurt or worse.

The same holds true for coyotes. For years, the foresters of PA wanted the deer herd reduced so the state's timber could be certified in the coming decades. The state changed the seasonal bag laws and, at the same time, began releasing coyotes. They denied (and still do) that they had anything to do with it. Funny thing though when hunters began finding tattoos on the inside of their lips from other states! Now, PA has more coyotes than we know what to do with. Oh, and by the way, the foresters and loggers got their wish - the whitetail deer herd has been drastically reduced to the point where its a big deal to see any deer during a whole hunting season unless you can hunt an urbanized area!

According to ODNR cougars do not exist in Ohio ,and there are No bears in Ohio either.

and that big silly four foot round chunk of culvert pipe with the sliding gate that they stuck outback in the woods last year, when everyones trash was getting torn into, was just for giggles..

really, keep and eye on the pet's and better armed....

as it was explained to me by my ODNR friend.."We really can't say what is exactly out there. Because it could, cause people to panic. Ohio's a big place. and we can't look everywhere.."