....thought you mind find this interesting:
January 20, 2004
STILL LOOKING FOR PROOF OF MOUNTAIN LIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Some days, jokes Gary San Julian, a wildlife resources professor in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, he feels like answering his office phone by saying "Pennsylvania Cougar Sightings Clearinghouse."
Since being quoted about the possibility of wild mountain lions surviving in Pennsylvania in a widely published story almost three years ago, he still gets regular e-mail and phone calls from residents around the state who tell him they have seen cougars. The story, titled "A Rural Legend -- the Search for Pennsylvania Mountain Lions," still can be found on the Web at
http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/News/august01/lion.html.
"Now I have worked with people and wildlife long enough to know that many, if not most, of these individuals are seeing something unusual," says San Julian. "The sightings, which seem to come from all over the state, are not all bobcats, big housecats or coyotes. Some are easily explained away, but I hear from people who have been hunting for 40 or 50 years, and they know the difference."
It seems clear that some people believe there are cougars at times in the wilds of Pennsylvania, but San Julian and Pennsylvania Game Commission officials believe they are released pets and perhaps a rare animal moving through the state. There have been reports of sightings in adjacent states such as West Virginia and New York, too.
"But never any proof," points out San Julian. "We have never had one killed by a collision with a vehicle or shot, nor have we even seen a confirmed track, DNA verified scat or an indisputable photograph or video. We need to see proof. But even if we get proof of a cougar in the state, there will still be a debate about whether the animal would represent a wild, breeding population."
San Julian cautions against hunters shooting any cougar they might encounter, however. "It would be unlawful in most cases to shoot a cougar," he says. "We definitely want to make it clear to sportsmen that they should not shoot a mountain lion if they see one just for the sake of obtaining proof of their existence in Pennsylvania."
Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser explained the regulations: "The general public shouldn't be out there looking to kill any wildlife except what can be hunted during specified seasons," he says, "including a cougar if they should see one. The only exception would be if it is clearly evident that a human life is endangered. The regulations say wildlife can be killed only in self-defense. We come across this occasionally in other hunting seasons when a bear might threaten and charge, and a hunter feels threatened and acts to protect himself or a companion."
There have been some interesting reports of possible cougar evidence in the last few years: a supposedly half-eaten deer carcass in a tree in Bedford County, a large pile of scat high up in a hunter's tree stand in Luzerne County, sightings of cougars with cubs by small plane pilots in western and northcentral Pennsylvania and tracks outside a fence in northcentral Pennsylvania when the captive cougar females inside were in heat. But there has never been any verification.
Like a lot of other people, San Julian would like to believe wild cougars still survive in Pennsylvania. "But without some proof, I just can't," he says. "As a scientist, it would be irresponsible for me to have any other attitude. I admit, all these sightings make me wonder. But without some proof, the mountain lions here remain a rural legend."
EDITORS: Contact Gary San Julian at (814) 863-0401 or by e-mail at [url=mailto:gsjulian@psu.edu.
