Question of the Month
July 2010

Are there pumas, or mountain lions, in the mid-Atlantic States?

I love the big cats and devote a huge amount of my field time photographing African lions, leopards, cheetahs, and in 2011, tigers. I've seen about 20 mountain lions, or pumas, in the field, but all but 2 were in Chile. Those special two were across a river just outside Glacier National Park in Montana, and consisted of a mother and two cubs (Mary saw both cubs, I only saw one, and we did so separately, as we were driving two vehicles).

At one time mountain lions, or more properly puma (Puma concolor), enjoyed the widest geographic range of any New World mammal, and were found throughout all of the contiguous United States. By the mid-1900s pumas were eliminated from almost all of the eastern states, and by mid-century were officially extinct east of the Mississippi, except for a remnant population in southern Florida.

Certainly it is a romantic notion, but I've always held out the hope that pumas still roamed the east. With that hope in mind, I have, for years, asked outdoors people if they ever heard of a mountain lion, or puma, in their area -- with my questioning limited to people in my home state of Pennsylvania.

Each year, over tha past five, I've spoken with at least one person who swears they personally saw a puma in this state. One sighting I give complete belief in was from a friend who told me a puma crossed right in front of their vehicle, and paused on the berm for a few seconds, at a distant of ten yards or less.

Here in central Pennsylvania we live on the outskirts of what one puma-tracking website has as almost the high point of sightings, extending from north-central Pennsylvania in a southwestern diagonal that extends into the mountains of West Virginia. Most of the people I've spoken with live in this belt, but biologists friends I've spoken with have told me of their own reports, first-hand, from hunters in the Poconos who saw pumas, too.

I could fill pages recounting the eye-witness reports I've heard, and for every report critics could certainly say 'but there's no physical evidence!' That's true. In books I've read critical or skeptical or down-right dismissive of the idea of pumas in the East, the argument has been advanced that the hopefull puma-dreamer/spotters arguing that the State needs to prove pumas don't exist does not mean that in the State not proving this means that pumas indeed do exist in this state.

I can't dismiss the eye-witnesses I've interviewed. A few could, perhaps, be mistaken idenity. For example, one man I interviewed said he saw a 'black' puma, and this should disqualify his sighting as a black puma has never been recorded. He saw his cat at very close range -- 20 yards or less, and when I pointed out to him that pumas are never black he said that perhaps it was the light. A dark brown puma, backlighted by a strong sun, could appear all black, or very dark, and he accepted that. But more importantly, he also said that regardless of color, he saw a big cat, with a tail that looked to be about 4 feet long! He's a hunter, a woodsman, and he's seen a lot of game, so I can believe he saw a back-lighted puma.

The State argues that there is no physical evidence, and no credible photographs. The State cites that there are no road-kills, and in a heavily trafficed state like Pennsylvania there should be kills. However ...

I spend a lot of time outdoors, and I've seen about 10 black bears in Pennsylvania, and all within ten miles of my home. I'm a photographer, yet I've never had a chance to snap a photograph of one of these bears. The sightings were great bear views, but too fast or fleeting to allow me to grab a camera. I used to archery hunt for deer, and I spent a lot of time (way too much time) sitting silently in a tree stand waiting for deer. In all those hours I never saw a coyote, bear, or bobcat, and yet all live in my area.

I asked our Game officials about evidence, and they cite no road kills. There are at least 20,000 black bears in Pa., and a small percentage are killed each year, but we're probably not talking about 20,000 pumas in the state. In Yellowstone, definite puma country (perhaps not ideal habitat, but pumas are found in every section of Yellowstone), I've spoken to guys on road crews and with rangers, each with 20 years of field or road experience in Yellowstone, and the ranger had only seen 2 (both road kills and together) and the road crew guys two or three in all their years.

On the other hand, there are probably thousands of game cameras covering water holes and game trails throughout Pennsylvania, and to my knowledge no one has yet recorded a puma. Conversely, an outdoor writer I know told me that when Pa. enacted a menagerie permit law years ago, 'a lot of mountain lions suddenly died,' as the owners of these cats, rather than going through the paperwork, simply released their pumas and claimed that they had died. Of course, the writer's comments were hearsay, but it does make sense.

State Game Officials do concede that some people may indeed have seen a puma, but it was undoubtedly a released captive. That may be true, or was once true, but even a declawed puma, if it can survive off rabbits and squirrels, and breeds, its offspring would be fully equipted to survive.

Interestingly, almost all of the people I've spoken to who claim to have seen a puma have not seen a bobcat, an animal that is common enough in Pennsylvania to support a legal trapping season! Have all of those who have seen a puma really seen a bobcat? What would account for the long tails? Imagination? Wishful thinking?

I'd love to hear of any reports you have. While the chances that I'll ever see a puma in Pennsylvania myself are virtually zero, I'm always on the alert -- for the bobcat I've never seen in Pa., for a fisher, bear, deer, red salamander, toad, or snake, and yes, I'm always hoping that I too will become one of those who saw something that officially cannot exist within the state, a puma I know I saw but, of course, could not have!

Let me know if you have seen one!

 

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