Someone is trying to instill fear about mountain lions on the loose in Virginia, though the Department of Game & Inland Fisheries says it's fake news. In fact, bobcats take down prey that weighs as much as 8 times their weight when the situation arises. I think there have been reintroduction programs in some areas. Today, there are less than 200 Florida panthers remaining. D. Racey I dont think you have to worry about your horse at all. Given my report in spring of 07 of a lion sighting could this be a return of the catamount? Im of the opinion that there really never was a big difference between the eastern cats and whats in existence now, she said. 26 Sep 16. Snce 1890, roughly 20 people have been killed by cougars. Now, after a reintroduction that began in 2012, these magical creatures have made their way back. Since then I have involved myself by volunteering for the AT Camera project and joining Eastern Cougar Foundation (ECF). He said, I went out at about dusk and I was looking around my property and at the edge of the woods I saw a mountain lion with a half dead groundhog in its mouth and it was tossing it into the air and catching it.. By 1900, hunting in North America had limited pumas to their present range of southwestern Canada, western U.S. wilderness areas, southern Florida, and isolated areas in Mexico. By 2011, U.S. Th cat didnt pay any attention to them although they were careful to remain at a distance until it got into the woods and disappeared. When very quietly without any noise I saw movement coming out of a clearing. Others, including the park ranger she met that day and wildlife experts shes reached out to since the sighting, are skeptical. Perhaps some of thes animals came from the private sector and they were simply let loose by their owners. But the thing about mountain lions is that females dont travel as far or as often, and when they disperse they dont go very far or very well.. This is a stones throw from Skyline Drive and backs up to a mountain where we live. If an animal approaches, prepare to fight and protect your head and neck from the attack. Last year I was outside with my lab and I heard that scream that sent my dog running frantically away and stopped me in my tracks. It was just after dark and I didnt think there were supposed to be any mountain lions in that part of the country. So yes, there are mountain lions in the Blue Ridge. Comments have now closed permanently, however. And yet there are numerous reports of hikers and residents spotting these creatures, especially in the mountains. It was undoubtedly a full grown male mountain lion. My e-mail address is gardrserv@yahoo.com & would be more than willing to give anyone any info as to what & where I saw. All of this happened just out of bow range and its heart wrenching knowing there is nothing you can do. Hello, Well, then dont dress them up like sheep, he said with a chuckle. He was a beauty! So, I had the opportunity to help raise beautiful, and playful ( they acted just like any kitten would! If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. My first thought was, I gotta chase this thing, Marchibroda said. One of the first things we asked was if theyd heard screaming sounds. rick_freer@yahoo.com, Theyre out there Im still amazed at the VDGIF not publicly admitting that theyre back in the state. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. The sub-species of the eastern cougar indigenous to the state is extinct. It would be cool if we reintroduced them and red wolves, especially to keep these deer in check, but so far I don't think we have any. "I never say never about these things, it's certainly possible," Fies said. 12. I was so shocked that I could even stop the car in time to see it again. The very sad news: there was a PGC ear tag on it. Look up the story of Rocky the African serval- an escaped pet that roams Virginia to this day I believe. If theyre still around here, during deer season, Im assuming well get more pictures from trail cameras, he said. It was slinking off up a hill after crossing the road, he said it was 100 + lbs. Today, we are going to be learning about where they live. I am from western North Carolina. Those few instances where the information appears credible, investigation by staff has always confirmed the animal to be a bobcat, black bear, domestic cat or dog.". Male cougar territories are pretty big, and thats why they have to disperse farther than females, LaRue said. When my lights shined in its eyes I was pretty sure that what I saw was a mountain lion, but then again I only got a short glimpse of it. few turkeys this spring and summer. My wife shot video of what we believe to be a panther or mountain lion. cat with a !very long! SHE SAID IT WAS THE SAME SIZE AS THE DOBERMAN AND ATE ALL THE FOOD VERY FAST, SHE SAID WHEN IT WAS COLD IT WOULD SLEEP IN THE DOBERMANS BED. It was probably a year later that those people sold their house to another couple with horses. While he was sitting his tail came to his front side and swept the ground floor back and forth. Did hear some weird crying up in the hills yesterday though, kind of a cross between a calf and a human baby. In grad school I worked with a lot of the wildlife and natural resources folks at VT. So that is all the details I can think of except I didnt mention that the cat was tan with dark fur higlighting its face, looked like pictures Ive seen of them really and I figured due to its size and the fact that it had no spots left that we could see it was almost grown. My 70lb lab is 24 at the shoulder for comparison. I looked outside & about 300 ft. behind my house was a panther. The populations are doing well enough in the west that when young males get old enough, they dont have anywhere to go, she said. We coundnt believe what we saw. Mountain lions are known by many names, including cougar, catamount, painter, panther, and puma. The US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Eastern Cougar as Endangered in 1973, since it was considered to be a distinct breeding population separate from the western population. The U.S. shortly after this, it was reported in the article, a puma was killed by a sheep rancher in an adjoining W.VA county. Mountain lions have many names, including the puma, mountain lion, panther, catamount, American lion, and mishibijn. Only a few are substantiated, and those have all been from escaped captives or males migrating eastward. LaRue is the first to admit that shed love to see a mountain lion in the wild, and she of all people understands the fascination with them. There is wide open space there, high cliffs, and an abundance of deer. Above post by Rob about a Lion in Wise virginia is a hoax! Last year I saw a very large cat print left in the snow. As we came to a stop, it calmly walked away crossing a short grass field, into the woods. Speculation over what kind of animal attacked a hiker near Humpback Rocks on Friday namely, a bear or mountain lion was resolved Monday, thanks to the victim's mother. I was taking my wife to work eraly Thursday about 4 am..We had just passed the airport on 58 east in Danville, Va. To the right side shoulder of the road there stood some type of cat. In a small town called Coeburn. Mountain lions weigh between 90-160 pounds while bobcats weigh between 20-30 pounds according to an article by the Iowa DNR. Seems in these parts every snake they see is a copperhead (even the black with white belly ones). These felines are quite large. My grandparents lived most of their lives near Summersville, WV, in Nicholas County. In fact, there have been 121 reports that are likely to have been true mountain lion sightings. But their population definitely isnt established here. This is not the same picture withe the cat dragging the buck. This time is was near 4 A.M. On Saturday, Sept 28, 2008, at 7:20am, I was on my way to Warrenton from Midland (7 miles southeast of Warrenton). Upon seeing the lights, he turned around and ran into the woods. One on a Farm just a bit out of Town. Needless to say, our guns were ready and we were as still as we could be. I went to Chestoa, which is an awesome overlook pretty much between Altapass and Linville. http://www.easterncougar.org/ Ben Shrader Bedford, Virginia. The only confirmed mountain . Theres no guarantee that cougars trekking from South Dakota will stick around, or that the female in Tennessee will have kittens. He slowly began walking backwards toward to the house and luckily got inside without incident. Originally, mountain lions lived across the entire continent of North America. Thus the tight lips. Spotted a lion last night around 7:30 pm. 211 just north of Warrenton VA. Motion-sensitive infrared cameras have been deployed near Appalachian Trail to try to determine whether cougars are back. soon after, a report appeared in the wash. post about a squirrel-hunting ranger/game warden who spotted 2 pumas. Concord University (Concord) is a public university in Athens, West Virginia.It was founded on February 28, 1872, when the West Virginia Legislature passed "an Act to locate a Branch State Normal School, in the town of Concord Church, in the County of Mercer". Dont know what it was, but I have always wondered if it was a big cat or not. I used to vacation on Smith Mountain Lake Virginia, Good View, and I can definatly confirm cougar in this area. June 21, 2008 About two weeks ago I was traveling on Rt 15 from Farmville to Dillwyn in Buckinham county. Many ridges, creeks, swamps and mountains were long ago named for panthers or the colloquial term "painters," both common names in this part of the country for the cougar. There's a whole world to learn about and Colby is content to spend his life learning as much as he can about it! Broad daylight, it crossed the road approx. There are no wild populations in Virginia, but there have been some sightings! My husband saw it too. AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) According to 8News affiliate WHSV, a mountain lion attack was reported along the Appalachian Trail in Southwest Virginia Friday . They have been absent from this state since the late 1800s; however, there have been a few isolated sightings. The West Virginia Wildlife Center is open to the public seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A neighbors cat was outside and I could see that she was visibly frightened and crouching under a car. His tail looked a couple of feet long! This video footage of a confirmed female lion was captured in November 2015 in Obion County, Tennessee. I had the windows open because it was a cool night. I was looking out our 2nd story window yesterday evening when a very large cat looking animal came out of a thicket behind the house to get a drink in the pond. The closest description I could find was the cry of the cougar or the mountain lion. Well, I knew the difference. I got a couple of pictures of paw prints. Having myself grown up in western North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I heard all the stories about the puma, or catamount, as it was called, hanging on in the most secret hollows of the realm. Here's What, Mountain Lion Size Comparison: How Do They, This Fearless Cougar Doesnt Care How Much Larger the Brown Bear Is and Goes for It, Watch This Family Discover a Mountain Lion Curled Up On Their Porch. During one of our walks last weekend my sister spotted a very !large! Victim of animal attack treated for rabies. Do wolves live on the Appalachian Trail, more specifically on Roan Mountain? With numerous supposed sightings since the 1970s to present, it doesn't sound too far fetched. It was misty, and had rained the night before. My parents were having their Sunday drive today (9-2-07) in an area called Mabe, near Duffield, Virginia and saw a mountain lion. We were too busy looking at each other asking, Did you see that? We should have ben focusing on details. I saw one questionable critter a few years ago but I cant say 100% it was a lion. There have been sightings of mountain lions in Virginia since the late 1800s, and its tough to imagine that every single one of them is misidentifying or lying about their experience, but it doesnt help that there hasnt been any physical evidence of mountain lions found either. So they say Mt. I am not 100% certain but I would like it if someone could identify the cats for me. Looked like a red wolf though and we got a good look as it crossed the road in front of us on our way down the mountain (driving) in full daylight. Love Virginia? I went outside to feed my cat and in the silence of the night, early morning I heard the eerie sounds of coyotes across the hill. Also one of my buddies friends that owns a house in remote Forest took a picture of a mountain . Virginia Dept. When it turned around thats when I saw its long tail almost to the ground. The next morning I found a large track in soft dirt. We got a clear enough look at it to even distinguish what appeared to be some some kind of scarring, or maybe it was just dirt streaks, on its upper right hind leg. Eastern cougars are not a distinct species genetically. ", "These cats are moving east looking for new territory," Renee O'brien posted on Facebook. I also found a recording online of a cougar cry and it was EXACTLY the sound I heard. One of the yotes had her by the mouth over her nose and one had her by the throat while the other 2 watched. just wanted to know more about wolves in Virginia. Interesting enough on October 28 just over two weeks later it was reported on the local news that two women had seen a mountain lion in Bon Air. tail, gray to tan in color. . No other vehicles were immediately around me. Which could be a pretty big deal, because up until now, the confirmed sightings in the east have been of male cats. Then well try to figure out what kind they are and get more evidence.. We were really focused on the males, because obviously they cant ensure populations with just males, LaRue said. the cougar tail almost sweeps the ground and might have some markings on the tip of gray/white, the rest of the tail looks like short hair and is not bushy. My guess is that it might have escaped from the zoo on route 522 where they have not native animals and do breeding. The Roanoke Times. Bears on the other hand, are a dime a dozen and we see them every year. ", Yellowstone bison are a globally unique animal. 0. Lets explore what that looks like some more. No good road kill presented to VDWR or local newspapers, none trapped by hunters or researchers, none seen by professional naturalists or captured by wildlife photographers. I failed to mention the eyes looking at us! There was another report of someone (much less credible) who spotted one near Midway (outside Gate City) about 5 years ago. who knows? Where I hunt in Linden the owners have said to have seen a really big black cat. The game warden cut open the animal and it had 2 walker hounds in its stomach. The Florida Panther was also listed as a separate subspecies, Puma concolor coryi. Since 1970, 121 sightings have been identified as possible mountain lions, but have not been officially . 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