NY Outdoors

I suppose the fact they use state officials and scientific testing not to mention actual carcases and pictures of the caracses as well as state police being involved in many of those sightings and test ....... ya they are just big foot hunter for sure. All them scientists, police, and state official must be lying. Boy the conspiracy thickens. Funny how some people can't take the time to be burdened with science and authority

Bill Yox

Canadian Eastern wolf or Red wolf??? Sorry, youre not even close. If youre quoting a source, its not an accurate one for you. The Red Wolf hails from Arkansas. Its widely known that its demise has been the result of its willingness to interbreed with the native coyote, canis latrans. The largest number of known red wolves these days is on an island sanctuary in the Carolinas, the exact location escapes me.

Theyve been looking at suture joints in the skull, offset molars, DNA, humerus bone size, etc, and still dont have anything conclusive. They simply call our eastern coyotes the newest hybrid, a "super coyote". Hes bigger by way of heavier bone structure and mass. Western coyotes in the south might be 30 lbers, but northwestern coyotes are big. Bergmans rule takes care of that. You can look that one up in your reference books!

I spoke more than once to the folks from the eastern cougar group...they want wild free ranging lions here so bad, it was obvious I was speaking to the same people who sit out in Nevada watching and waiting for flying saucers.

Im with Phade, like Ive said so many times, yes, maybe an occasional lion could migrate through, but our human population densities dont suggest supporting too many or having them move into areas they havent been in for so many years. Couple that with escapees, which, by the way, are NOT usually reported for pretty obvious reasons (theyre illegal to begin with...) and you have very few lions to sight. Ill be willing to bet that jhoffman did see his lion, and it was, as we have been saying, the EXCEPTION.

jhoffman

I have hunted coyotes in Idaho and in Western NY - definately a size difference. I do see the similarity to a wolf in the eastern coyote but I have seen more evidence of coyotes breeding with the local beagle more that evidence of them breeding with a wolf.

There a a couple of packs of coydogs around that seem to be very agressive, just looking at them you can see that they are pretty much just wild dogs. They have all types of strange color patterns. They are starting to get them under control over the last couple of years though - I am seeing more and more coyote when out hunting though.

I used to just see one every once in a great while. Now I see one just about everytime I am in the woods. There is a big population of them where I hunt. I have a 60 lbs mounted that I took in deer season in 2003.

Phade

That's my whole point, rarely do you see the name of the official, or the actual results of the test. The picture of the carcass in the NYS case clearly indicates if it was a lion, it was an escaped animal. It is the same tactics used by people who want you to believe in ghosts, UFO's, etc.

They say the DNR, or DEC did this or had results from that...but there is no quote from the state officials, nor is there a results sheet etc. that would accompany something of this magnitude.

The concept of a free-ranging natural population is illogical, but the best part is that there is no proof of one exsisting. Take any one of those so called "confirmations" and get me into contact with the state official in charge of the "confirmation" or show me a results sheet from DNA/hair/etc, tests from a reputable scientist not on the cougar network payroll.

Like I said before escaped animals are certainly possible, but not a natural population that has not had official acknowledgement from government agencies (ie a press release, etc.).

Here, read this... the DEC's website:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/d...ec/eacofs.html

Oh, by the way...the eastern cougar is officialy considered extirpated. Look up that word....

There's your counter proof.

It's released by the Endangered Species Unit, the very same unit that dealt with the cougar sighting listed in your so called cougar network...

And they came to the same conclusion Bill, myself and many others did....

jhoffman

I have a topo map of the area in which my brother spoted that lion.
I tried to embed the pic in the post but it keeps giving me the message that the doc contains no data. I can view the pic fine from my laptop though.

Any Ideas on how to get it to post?

jhoffman

Well wether I get that pic to post or not the point I was trying to get to with it was the amount of area that is located where my brother spotted the mt. lion. I was able to map it out and is showed that there where approximately 15 sq miles of woods where no roads cross through.

The area is all wooded except for a couple of small fields that are surrounded by woods and the only access into this area are a couple of old jeep trails and some ATV trails. This block of woods is surrounded by mostly Agricultural Land - cow pastures, corn fields, ect...
I would think that if the lion was living in this area and not just passing through from some where it found a good area to hole up.

There is plenty of deer, and turkey and all types of game up there to feed on. There are are couple of small feeded streams that come down out of the woods to the creek; which happens to be loaded with trout. There are a couple of small ponds up in the woods also.

Ywo years ago one of the local farmers lost a Buffalo up there - yes Buffalo! he has about 200 - 300 of them at any given time. It got up into this same section of woods and it took him three months to find it and that is only because it roamed out across a rd and up some ladys driveway - and she called him to come get it. they ended up having to shoot it to because it got too agressive after being out in the wild for so long.

How would you like that walking under your deer stand in the fall?

thesource

C'mon guys.

We'd all like the idea of cougars roaming free in NY.

Its just not true. I saw at least 3 articles in the local paper with DEC officials pleading for some evidence but firmly stating that none has been made available.

At the state of the heard meeting, the Region 8 biologist positively ridiculed the idea of mountain lions in NY.

If they were here, we would know it. They are not here.

PA GOBBLER

i ran into one of them 2 weeks before turkey season, first time i ever ran into one.. it was really agressive to me.. kinda freaked me out.. i talked to a guy the other day who saw it last week it acted the same.. pretty crazy..

i dont know if mtn lions are here, i havent seen one or any sign, so till i do im going w/ i dont think they are around yet... but if someone thinks they are then im not going to call them a liar..

missed_another

i also think that they could be in n.y. and pa. thirty years ago people used to laugh when we told them we had heard coyotes howling. they don't laugh anymore. anything is possible.

Phade

Yes, I was there as well. I heard it from his mouth too. Not to mention Gordon B. said the same thing. He is one of the top dog biologists for the state, stationed in Albany.