Mountain Lions????

At this point, a mountain lion being shot in Pennsylvania is more believable to me than a deer being shot.

I had the exact same two pictures e-mailed to me about 3 years ago.  The e-mail said they were taken in Tioga County.  I think someone's playing games with us.

u know we have coyotes which for the longest time was denied by the commission. then the reintroduction of fishers to PA so as if the populationof deer isn down enoguth the newest idea mountain lions. and yes i beleive they are experimenting around with it because ot many people includig me have seen one its either the commission or someone in pa really likes them alot and is bing ing them in on thier own

A fella in Spruce Creek had a few wolves in his backyard for a few years.  Two years ago, the cage disappeared.  Don't know what happened to them.  They were visible along route 45.

Bluntman, I am sure the website you got this off of is a very reputable site.  As I recall, it is from the Big foot website and was written because the game comission wouldnt agree the trail photos taken a while back was a juvenile bigfoot!

Let me add this.
 
A few years ago the local fire department was called to a vehicle/animal wreck.  Along the crashed car was a dead mountain lion according to the fire chief and crew and police.  The PGC came to the accident when notified and told everyone there that the mountain lion was a deer.  They picked up the dead animal, put it in the back of the truck and left.
 
A state park officer my wife knew told my wife and I that the mountain lion we saw in May 2002 was most likely an otter moving from one watershed to another through the woods.  Biggest otter I've ever seen, by the way.  I would say it could have grabbed me and took me up a tree to eat me, if otters could climb a tree.
 
The PGC does deny that there are "Mountain Lions" in Pennsylvania, but their officers do not deny that there are "cougars" in Pennsylvania.
 
Food for thought.  Next time you talk to someone from the PA Game Mismanagement Commission ask them about "cougars" not "mountain lions."

Rsquared,
 
Thanks for the input, hopefully you can find out more than I was able too.  I still haven't come up with enough info to convince myself.  I know what can happen when a story gets passes through multiple hands.  However, there always is that slim chance.  By the way, the people who told me the story all claimed it had a radio in its ear.
 
Check this video out too....probably not from PA but who knows.
 
http://www.wpxi.com/video/14539923/index.html

Erie insurance stocking.
 
http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m186/danceswithskunks/?action=view&current=MTLIONs-1.flv
 
 

Taken out of a PGC press release

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to compile and evaluate scientific evidence to understand the status of the eastern cougar and to determine what future actions the Service should take," Roe said.  "We receive alleged sighting reports from various places in the state, and we encourage Pennsylvanians to direct their comments to the USFWS." As part of the review, the USFWS is seeking information on the status of the eastern cougar in the 21 states -- from Maine to South Carolina and westward from Michigan to Tennessee -- where the Endangered Species Act protects it.  Lacking definitive evidence of the species' existence, the Service has presumed the eastern cougar to be extinct.  According to the USFWS, it is improbable that a small cougar population persisted in the eastern states for over a century.  Most of the confirmed cougar records since 1950 (animals killed, good quality photos/videos, genetic evidence) are known to be escapes of captive origin.  There may be thousands of captive cougars in the eastern United States.

The USFWS are trying to cover it up as well!

From the research ive gathered, i believe that there are no eastern moutain lion species left. however, i do believe there are mountain lions that were brought in by human, there are many ways an exotic animal can be brought into pennsylvania. my uncle lives in ellwood city, pa and he has a friend who has a mountain lion and a permit for it. this guy has had moutain lions from the time he was a kid, when you could get away with having whatever animal you could get your hands on. anyway, he said he used to go to ohio and buy them like they were any domestic animal. and says you still can buy them, just have a secluded place to have em and dont get caught. but yet i do believe the game commission tries to hide the found mountain lions, for many of reasons. just a couple years ago, a guy that works with my dad was tring to sell me his alligator that was getting to big for him to keep. he said if he cant sell it hes throwing it in the river. well he didnt sell it to me and my guess is it went in the river. I sure as hell wasnt buying it. Also another incident ive seen, a friend of mine shot a coyote in venango county near the allegeny river that had a tag in its ear that just had #s on it. he called the game commission and they said they dont know what it was about and told him not to worry about it. Could this be an escaped exotic pet, some survey animal, or was it released by an agency? who knows.

Did it have a radio collar on it, or just tags in its ear?  My cousin's uncle's nephew saw two bigfoots (bigfeet?) out stocking coyotes once up north. 

ORIGINAL: DanesDad

I know  guy who has a sister in law, whose daughters best friend swears she's seen bigfoot in Pennsylvania.

my best friends second cousin know this kid dane whos dad puts whip cream on his nuts cause its the only way to get his heifer to lick em.

dont be so nieve buddy, thats what makes you so dumb.  

ORIGINAL: Slate_Drake_9

Let me add this.

A few years ago the local fire department was called to a vehicle/animal wreck.  Along the crashed car was a dead mountain lion according to the fire chief and crew and police.  The PGC came to the accident when notified and told everyone there that the mountain lion was a deer.  They picked up the dead animal, put it in the back of the truck and left.

A state park officer my wife knew told my wife and I that the mountain lion we saw in May 2002 was most likely an otter moving from one watershed to another through the woods.  Biggest otter I've ever seen, by the way.  I would say it could have grabbed me and took me up a tree to eat me, if otters could climb a tree.

The PGC does deny that there are "Mountain Lions" in Pennsylvania, but their officers do not deny that there are "cougars" in Pennsylvania.

Food for thought.  Next time you talk to someone from the PA Game Mismanagement Commission ask them about "cougars" not "mountain lions."

 
I'm not doubting your story, but i'm unsure why the fire department and police were called to respond to a car accident involving a mountain lion? Did the car hit a tree also? I just cant see something the size of a mountain lion doing a lot of damage to a car.

Nightowl,
think about the population dynamics of the coyote, they have few predators, high survival, able to reproduce at a young age and have large litters.  Animals that are in areas of abundant resources exibit an exponential growth curve.  Coyotes have an average litter of 5-7 per year.  In three years that single pair of coyotes can produce 21 coyotes( you said you didnt see a coyote around your house 3 years ago).  But, the offspring are capable of reproducing as well.  Lets say the first years offspring reproduced (although more comonly after the 2nd year).  So lets say the first year litter was 6 pups, for simplicity we will say there are 3 males and 3 females and they bred together producing lets say 5 offspring each.  That would be 48 coyotes in two years from 1 original pair.  You can only imagine what the number would be after one more year to make it 3 years, plus I dont feel like thinking that hard.  Nightowl,  Not trying to give you a hard time just letting you know how quickly populations can grow, especially for an animal capable of producing 5-7 offspring each year.  There are plenty of examples in the past where animals were almost extirpated and now the populations are huge.  Look at geese, believe it or not they were almost exterpated in the early 1900's, same with deer, look at comorants expanding their range.  It happens, again I don't even see why the game commission would deny stocking coyotes if they did.  Every other animal they have reintroduced, has been covered extensively by the news and publications as well as studies, Fishers, otters, elk, hacking of eagles.  Why wouldn't they disclose they introduced them?  If your answer is: people would be upset because it would decrease deer numbers.  Well they did that publicly through increasing doe licences, they didnt seem to care about people complaining then.  So as Silverkype has mentioned there are easier ways to go about it then stock coyotes, just something to think about. 

http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/view.asp?a=458&q=163663    read that