jonnyfishon
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DEC: Photo Probably Shows Bobcat
By BREN MIOSEK
HARTWICK - After years of hearsay and speculation, local biologists said this week that an animal photographed in the Town of Hartwick is a mountain lion. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officials in Stamford said the animal in the picture looks more like a bobcat, but if it is a mountain lion, it would be the first proof of such an animal in Otsego County in more than a century.
The man who snapped the photo said the sighting was almost an accident.
"I was watching the evening news one night back in June, when I got up to get a glass of water," said a Town of Hartwick resident who asked to remain anonymous. "As I was doing so, I noticed a large animal moving through my back yard. I told my wife that there was a bobcat out back, and to grab the camera. She came around the corner with the camera and said, 'that's not a bobcat. That's a mountain lion.'"
Although taken from a distance, the photograph shows what appears to be a large feline in tall grass, just off the edge of a residential property.
Excited SUNY-Oneonta Biological Field Station officials said they agreed with the photographer's assessment.
"The photograph presented to us appears to be of a mountain lion," said BFS Director Dr. Willard "Bill" Harman.
"There's really nothing else that the image in the photograph looks like other than a mountain lion," said Assistant BFS Director Matt Albright after viewing the photo beneath a magnified screen.
BFS officials went on to say that the mountain lion could have been an escaped captive, and that the only such animal they were aware of was at Lollypop Farm and Petting Zoo in Hartwick.
The zoo, however, closed on December 31 of 2003, and the owners said the mountain lion they had in captivity died before that.
"We used to have a mountain lion," they said, "but it died a year ago November of natural causes."
Officials cautioned that doctored photographs claiming to show mountain lions circulate.
According to Ed Weidner, owner of Cooperstown 1 Hour Photo, while digital photographs are often manipulated, it is "almost impossible" to alter 35 millimeter film, the method with which the Hartwick photo was taken.
"When it's on a negative, you really can't doctor a negative," Weidner said.
After carefully examining the negative in his West Beaver Street lab, Weidner said conclusively that the film had not been altered.
While a picture may be worth a thousand words, several local residents have recently offered their own tales of mountain lion encounters.
"I've been seeing mountain lions in a field off of County Route 33, across from Brewery Ommegang, for the last three years," said Cooperstown resident Kurt Terrano. "This past summer I was on my way home when I noticed something in a corn field. I stopped my truck and started backing up for a better look. What I saw was an adult mountain lion with a dead coyote pup in its mouth. I'm an avid hunter. I know the difference between a mountain lion, a bobcat, a wolf and a coyote."
"People have been telling me for months about the mountain lions they keep seeing," said another Town of Hartwick resident who asked not to be identified. "Sightings have been growing in popularity. I saw the same photo the guys down at the BFS saw and I agree - the photo shows a mountain lion crouching in tall grass. I believe that the mountain lions that people are seeing were released by the DEC."
Rumors suggesting that the DEC - in collaboration with the insurance industry - released mountain lions to keep down the white tailed deer population of Otsego County, and therefore the number of deer-related automobile accidents.
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Big Cat??? - 
RE: Big Cat??? - 
Leen.
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