Cougar spotted Upstate NY

[Chuck White]

I spotted it myself!
It crossed the road about 1:30PM today, about 50 feet in front of my truck!

It was on County Route 24, about 2 miles West of the village of Russell!

It wasn't full grown, it's body was about 3 feet long, with a tail to match, and it stood about 1 1/2 foot tall!

I notified DEC and the first thing the lady asked me was: "What makes you think it was a cougar", My reply was "It looked exactly like one"!

Then I explained that our School Mascot is the cougar and we have a life-sized mounted cougar in a glass case in the hall way at school!

[Ramrod]

The old timers called them panthers. In spite of all the places in the state named after them, and all the reported sightings over the years, the DEC denies they exist. If you want to have some fun, ask them if you can shoot the next one you see.

[1911crazy]

I have seen them (tracks) in the higher elevations in the green mountains in Vermont for many years and finally got to see one, they are very elusive, smart and hard to find and to actually see one of these big cats is awesome.  I even had one pay a visit to my camp in Vermont too.  In Ct. we also have them my son and wife has seen one and we have had reports of sightings from all over Ct too.  Of course they don't exsist to the local fish and game people.  These must be released pets too sure??
Thats why i seen tracks first in the higher elevations over 20+ years ago and now their multiplying and comming into the lower elevations looking for a meal.  There have been many sightings in New York state too.  I think the clock is ticking on the first attack to when its going to happen here in the northeast too just like on the west coast its just a matter of time now then and only then the crap will hit the fan.  There was a mountainlion reporting site but it went down a few years ago mainly because of hecklers & non believers like i said there very elusive and most think if they walk in the woods your going to see one right away.  It took me many years to finally see one after finding the tracks.  I sent pictures of the tracks to tracking guys and it was confirmed a mountainlion track but i already knew it there's no mistaken to what it was.  I found it with bear tracks in the snow it may have been stalking a bears cub.  I was smart enough to put a pack of cigarettes next to it when i took the picture of it so it showed the relationship to its size.  Now the one is seen was full grown and about 180 to 200lbs and about 6' long with about a 4' big curly tail.  It was like watching wild america on TV only it was inperson.  We need to educate our kids on what to do with these awesome cats too.  If my son didn't have a clue he could of ended up lunch already.  I taught all my kids about being alert in the wilds after all my camp is in the middle of the best blackbear country in Vermont I have them comming by my camp at night all the time and now big cats too.
It pisses me off so much i would like to shoot one and put it on their door step so they can say they don't exsist then?  I won't shoot it unless it attacks but by then it maybe too late there was one attack on TV in Canada where a hunter was jumped by a mountainlion and another hunter was closeby and luckily he shot 3 times to get it off him so if weare alone were screwed unless we have a handgun but its better to be alert and avoid ambush points like over head ledges.  All the predators are making a strong comeback we have everything in Ct too.    Stay safe!!!!!                                                              BigBill

BTW; How big are your coyotes??  I said this on the net years ago and got hammered for it.  I said the coyotes look pretty big up north to be coyotes they look more like wolves.  Then i read soon after that the wolves from Canada are crossing into the US from the Canadain boder and interbreedding with our coyotes making a larger coyote. The story is on the net somewhere were they did a study and that was the results interesting?  We now have female german shepard sized coyotes. Great? I always tell my hunting buddies its time to take out some of these coyotes there over killing the deer population besides the mountainlions killing a deer every 3 to 5 days too.  The deer herd is catching hell in Vermont and its not the locals jacking them either.

[nomosendero]

Gentlemen
I guess that the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission recieves the same memos that your G&F boys do.  
Back in the 70's they said our native species (Florida Panther) was rare &
put on the endangered list. Then in the early 90's they decided that they
were all gone even though spottings were still being reported but not as
often. But in the last 5 years the sightings have increased big time. And
in Leslie, Ar. a woman was attacked & killed by a large animal & indications are that it was a Cougar. Now the Game & Fish Commission
has published a new position statement. Instead of saying they were wrong they are telling us that some Cougars have moved in from the West & they were right about our Florida Panther subspecies. Who cares
where they are from!
Big Bill, I don't think what you said about the Wolves is far fetched. In the
70's the Red Wolf of AR., Texas & La. began to disappear. The G&F
(a good bunch back then) determined that they bred themselves out of
existance by mixing with Coyotes. These Red Wolves were much larger
than Coyotes but smaller than the Northern wolf & this was even easier
to see how this would happen than in your situation. We also have  some Coydogs. And for sure, some of our Coyotes are much larger than the
Coyotes that I see out West.