[DBuck]

Whatever it's worth,don't really want to start a debate just passing on some information to those that are interested.

A guy that I work with is considered by the Pennsylvania game commission to be an expert tracker,so they call him when they need a hand in tracking certain animals. Well he told me Friday that he got called to help this weekend to look for a mountain lion and 2 cubs that were sighted.( I didn't want to post anything until I talked to him today and get the story).. So here's what he told me. They started out on horseback Saturday morning,(it was him,a CO a Biologist and someone else)found the cold trail and followed it,they found tracks,fur and scat.So they followed the trail through 4 counties,I forget which ones but I do remember he said that they ended up by Wade county,I think another one was Lackawanna(I think,not sure if thats a county,town or what).He said they think that the cats were headed for the Catskills to winter up there. So long story short,they found some good enough prints to make a cast and pictures of,the biologist said that the mother is about 110 lbs and the cubs are about the size of beagles. the scat that they found was full of rabbit hair but no deer,the biologist said that the mother is teaching the cubs to hunt so they are only focusing on smaller animals. They found a lot of fur because they are losing their summer coats and getting their winter ones. He brought some of the fur in so that I could see it,that was pretty cool.

Ok so that's pretty much it,nothing great just thought that some of you would enjoy the story.

Oh and I asked him on Friday to ask the biologist if there are cats in Jersey and he did,she said that there are reportings and they have found prints but they never actually seen any here. If they are that close in PA then why would it be so far fetched that they are here.

 

[luknikk]

It's all a matter of time just like the blackbears. Once those cubs have a litter and that litter has a litter there's gonna be more sightings. They just so happen to be much more elusive then bears are.

 

[passthru125]

i believe it, they claim they saw a cat in Delaware county new york.
Did i ever mention about the moose my brother saw in the resevoir up there?


Franco..........[smoke]

 

[Rusty]

Cool story! [up]

 

[GhillieScout1]

"Beast of NEPA" Strikes Again
By SARAH THOMAS

SCOTT TWP.- Wayne County's own Loch Ness Monster has been sighted again, this time on lonely Trotter's Mountain near Sherman. And, paralleling Nessie's unique and warm relationship with her Scottish Highland neighbors, northeastern PA's oft-sighted, never-confirmed mountain lion family is fast becoming a popular visitor in our neck of the woods.

"I thought they were pretty cute," enthuses Bethann Holbert, Susquehanna, describing her recent close encounter with the creatures. "I kind of wished they'd have stayed around longer, but they just scooted across the road and into the trees."

As a few other residents have reported, the mysterious animal wasn't alone. Two pale, small cubs followed their mother's silent shadow.

"They looked kind of like big giant housecats. Not fat, just solid and big. They had light golden yellowish fur and really long tails."

The mother, Mrs. Holbert reported, appeared to be 80-90 pounds, or about the size of a large dog.

She also speaks with great authority on the physical characteristics of similar animals.

"I thought, the only other thing this could be was a bobcat. But bobcats have the short tails, and they're a grayish color."

This precise description is rooted in Mrs. Holbert's deep, personal familiarity with the wildlife around her mountain home.

"Right outside our back door is a few thousand acres of Pennsylvania state gameland. We've got bears, deer, skunks, porcupine, all kinds of animals running around. On our front porch is a big picture window, and we've seen bears through it. Once a bear on our front porch sat down with his feet on the door."

Prosaic descriptions of natural encounters that would have most people running for the nearest Starbucks are just another part of the Holbert's natural lifestyle. Mrs. Holbert, along with her husband Lothar, and their three children, Julius, 9, Joseph, 7, and Hannah, 5, know well how to treat their furry, toothy neighbors, and rarely feel fear of them.

"If I'm nervous, I'll make my husband take out the garbage. The kids play outside all the time, they know to stay away from an animal that is acting wrong - a nocturnal animal out in the day, something like that.

"My husband is especially into conservation, and he's teaching the children."

The entire Holbert family is clearly passionate about animals - when Mrs. Holbert met the mountain lions, she was on her way home to feed her fish. As soon as her surreal sighting was over, she was right on the phone to her children, who were staying with their grandmother at the time.

"I said to them, 'the mountain lions are coming your way!' But they never saw them. It took me fourteen years to see one."

Unconfirmed sightings of large animals are a common phenomenon, with certain animals - such as Nessie or her equally famous Badlands counterpart, Bigfoot - being sighted multiple times in a certain area. These creatures are called cryptids, after the branch of study, cryptozoology, concerned with them.

Northeastern Pennsylvania's cryptid lion story, however, parallels most closely that of a famously elusive big cat from the wilds of England, called the Beast of Bodmin Moor. While British scientists assert that there are no large feral cats in England, sightings there persist. The Pennsylvania Game Commission also continually reassures the public that no mountain lions remain in the wild, but such dry facts have rarely interfered with the creation of a legend - or the telling and retelling of a good story.

Only time will tell if conclusive proof of the "Beasts of NEPA" will be found. But for now, Mrs. Holbert is convinced, and her encounter has left her moved, if a bit frustrated. For Mrs. Holbert's story ends on the same note of disappointment shared by so many after their encounters with the weirder side of nature:

"I only wish I'd gotten a good photo. I had the camera with me and everything...they just disappeared too fast."

For more information about The Beast of Bodmin Moor and other cryptids around the world, visit www.unknown-creatures.com.
_________________
9/12/2007

7:15 am, rt 170N, 3 miles north of Creamton Corners( intersection of 247 and 170 Just below Memorial Links Golf course

Driving to work , animals crossed 15 feet in front of my car. Mother, approx 90-110lbs and two small cubs crossed road and went over bank into the West Branch of the Lackawaxen river. Just wish I had my camera. Called WDNH and reported information


[ninja].....Wheres the hecklers[spy]......Do captive and released cougars have cubs.....[confused][wallmad][wallmad][wallmad].....HeLLO[rofl][rofl]....
[up]Dbuck

 

[DBuck]

Yup...They are the reports that they went off of. Just so people know they are hunting them to collar them,not to harm them.

 

[buffalostink]

Cool info.. Thanks

 

[Bumhunt]

Nice

 

[DBuck]

Tonka.... Make a post so that I can PM you back. I can't PM you until you make a post or unless I see you on .

 

[gobblergetter]

Tonka

Don't you mean...'Ta-tonka' ? (Dances with Wolves)

 

[DBuck]

Don't you mean...'Ta-tonka' ? (Dances with Wolves)

No...Someone named Tonka PMed me with a question that got cut off and I need them to make a post so that I can respond to them .It's weird how the PMs are set up.

 

[gobblergetter]

Ooops My bad...I thought you were calling (buffalo)stink...Tonka

 

[GhillieScout1]

Unlike males, who may wander dozens of miles in search of territory to call their own, females typically don’t venture far from their birthplace, So the presence of one female cat often signals that other cats are nearby.[ninja]

 

[tonka]

Good morning. I work the hotline for the Eastern Cougar Foundation, and was alerted to DBuck's post. I've seen the reports of a mother with cubs in PA. Getting evidence from a location is exceptionally rare. If your friend doesn't mind, I'd like to contact him about the tracks and scat, as well as the biologist he worked with.

My Walker mix came from the shelter with the name Tonka.

 

[GhillieScout1]

....Welcome to the site Chris[up]...[smoke]

 

[tonka]

Thank you, Joe.

 

[GhillieScout1]

I'll give D-buck a call later[up]

 

[DBuck]

Tonka,I sent you a PM

 

[Guest]

very interesting information, thank you for sharing[up]

 

[GhostBear]

Choo-mani'ta tonka-oh-bwa'chi. Translates to dances with wolves![hihi] O.K. O.K. so I saw the movie to many times!!![rofl]