Cougars spotted
- Thread starter jkrat
- Start date
JumpinJosh
New Member
I am no expert, but I think mt lions attacking people is pretty rare occurence. It is usually children or pets. I grew up on the left coast and cougars in nature around us was part of life. Most weren't aggressive and would run away if they saw you. They have to be pretty starving to want to take such a big risk in attacking a human.
One thing I did learn is that never lay down if being attacked by one, always try to stand back up as their instincts for kill kick in when you are down.
When you think about it....We have TONS of bears in this state. Almost everyone I have spoken to has seen one at one time or another. I would estimate that at least 75% of the people I have talked to are afraid of bears....i.e. that they might be attacked by a bear someday. Given the fear the exists about bears and the fact that they are everywhere in NJ....I mean I have seen 3 in morristown less than a mile from the green. Yet the hunt to control thier population has almost always failed because people do not want it. IMO, it would not be any different for cougars, especially given that so few are ever seen. Right now they pretty much have bigfoot status. I dont think the majority of people would want them excuted. I think there would be a backlash about it NJF&W not being upfront about it and that I agree with. There is always some unintended consequence that was overlooked. Perhaps someday the population might grow large enough to overcome the deer population and then the cougars will start eating garbage....then maybe we will run out of garbage since they will have to compete with bears and racoons for the garbage population. 🙂
Funny, Utah. 🙂
A.There are no bears in this state because I've never seen one here. 🙄 I did see one in Florida so Florida definitely has them.
B. I have seen a very large cat that was much larger than a bobcat, had a long tail and was pure muscle. I saw 'it' or 'them' at two different times in Wayne 2-3 miles from Paterson(one of our lovely cities) on Valley Rd extention. Call them mountain lion or cougar, I don't care, they do exist and they're in High Mountain.
A.There are no bears in this state because I've never seen one here. 🙄 I did see one in Florida so Florida definitely has them.
B. I have seen a very large cat that was much larger than a bobcat, had a long tail and was pure muscle. I saw 'it' or 'them' at two different times in Wayne 2-3 miles from Paterson(one of our lovely cities) on Valley Rd extention. Call them mountain lion or cougar, I don't care, they do exist and they're in High Mountain.
Exact description of what I saw last night. Right on the money. It is a beautiful animal.
Did you also notice that it was impossibly thin? As the one I saw passed I couldn't believe how narrow it was from hip to hip in the back. We're not talking skinny we're talking sleek, agile and powerful.
VelocityBoy
"Sleeveless Joe"
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
kidzach
Well-Known Member
There is a "Cougar" thread in the Wawayanda section where mt_goat lists an organization you may want to report your sighting to. Just to at least let them know. http://www.easterncougar.org/ I'm kind of curious to hear what they tell you. I'm sure they would appreciate your encounter and would be much more receptive than the NJF&W would be.
dnap
Well-Known Member
It isn't a ridiculous notion to think that there could be cougars/ mountain lions in NJ. I think we (people) forget sometimes that we weren't necessarily the first ones who started living here.
What I learned in Canada was that cougars generally are not seen or heard. It just so happens one was seen crossing the road from exactly where we came from after our group came in from a ride. Apparently it was following us the whole time. We attributed the noises to a small animal because we never saw anything and nothing we heard seemed out of the ordinary.
Because of the sighting, we got a brief lesson in cougars... They follow or stalk, sometimes out of curiosity, but once you see them if you maintain eye contact and make yourself appear bigger they shy away. If they don't, then you could end up in the small percentage of people who get attacked. We were told that they tend to lose interest once they know they've been spotted. Then again, they could have told us that part to make us feel better about knowing there were cougars nearby 😉
What I learned in Canada was that cougars generally are not seen or heard. It just so happens one was seen crossing the road from exactly where we came from after our group came in from a ride. Apparently it was following us the whole time. We attributed the noises to a small animal because we never saw anything and nothing we heard seemed out of the ordinary.
Because of the sighting, we got a brief lesson in cougars... They follow or stalk, sometimes out of curiosity, but once you see them if you maintain eye contact and make yourself appear bigger they shy away. If they don't, then you could end up in the small percentage of people who get attacked. We were told that they tend to lose interest once they know they've been spotted. Then again, they could have told us that part to make us feel better about knowing there were cougars nearby 😉
😀 in all my time solo night riding at WSF, Peaslee WMA, Bellplaine SF, EHR WMA and MakePeace WMA, I've never had an issue. Even though there have been sightings of bears, boars, cougars and even a bull that escaped the slaughterhouse. (Shortly after the sighting are reported, the sightings stop.)
That might be because I live in an area where hunters greatly outnumber non-hunters. (note: I don't hunt, though I am very good with bow and am just OK with 12g.) I'm guessing that the initial report of two (two?!) solitary stalking felines chasing a deer in WSF has already been resolved. And if not, will surely be resolved by the second week of December. We'll have to wait and see.
That might be because I live in an area where hunters greatly outnumber non-hunters. (note: I don't hunt, though I am very good with bow and am just OK with 12g.) I'm guessing that the initial report of two (two?!) solitary stalking felines chasing a deer in WSF has already been resolved. And if not, will surely be resolved by the second week of December. We'll have to wait and see.
Hey man, Thanks. I'll look into it. I was apprehensive about reporting the sighting to the NJF&W. Reason being, I don't see any reason why the animal should be removed or killed. It has every right to be here. NJ may not be recognized as part of their natural occurring range but why not? There's plenty of food. Aside from the fact that I'm quite a bit spooked by this sighting, I think it's neat that one of these animals inhabits my neighborhood.
Ok, that was pretty good. Well done. My first try was "eats" - which gave me a good result.