Reports of Eastern Mountain lions

A friend of mine works for animal control in York Region and they have had calls on several occasions. One was around the corner from my house, I live next to a regional forest. She has seen one herself so hot all the reports are BS. Lots of food for them in my area Turkey, rabbit, grouse, deer, Too bad I can't hunt there:( .
 
On the black cougar thing, most of the ones that are reported being seen in NB are allegedly black and are not cougars as people think but fishers.

fisher1.jpg
 
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boney said:
I understand what you are saying Bill,but I got close enough to the one I saw back then, to honestly say it was not a fisher.It was a cat,a black cat in the 45-60lb class.Really.
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Sorry Andy, that wasn't aimed at you:) . I was just stating the fact that most black cougar sightings here turn out to be fishers. Maybe some here are legitimate as well but most aren't.
 
Canuck223 said:
If you call one in, see if he answers to the name Steve French. Don't panic if he comes close, just give him your lunch.
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And try not to be wearing a leopard skin coat or vest. It puts them in some kinda romantical mood. :D
 
Check this out:

Description
Body length: 3-4 ft. Tail: 2.5-3 ft. Height at shoulder: 25-30 in. Weight: 70-170 lbs.

The Mountain Lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail. Its fur is a light, tawny brown color which can appear gray or almost black, depending on light conditions. Contrary to popular belief, there are no black panthers in North America; no one has ever captured or killed a black Mountain Lion. Mountain Lions are also called cougars, pumas, panthers, painters, and catamounts.

Taken from:

ww w.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/
 
I saw one in Burkton Ont in 87 it was over 6 foot long and looked like a lion. One of the more famous hound men in Ontario hunts coyotes and wolves in the Fenelen Falls, Bobcaygeon area. He has seen Cougars and has seen Deer Carcasses half eaten and hanging in trees.....
There was a pair of Cougars that got photographed frequently in the Rice Lake area a couple of years back.
I think that they need to be protected... but so do people and livestock.
You would be in deep if you shot one for any other reason than protection of human life.
Dougs advice is sound.
 
Sorry Andy, that wasn't aimed at you . I was just stating the fact that most black cougar sightings here turn out to be fishers. Maybe some here are legitimate as well but most aren't.
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.............I have seen one cougar in my life. This animal was up at Blue Lake in Sicamous. To all the nimrods that would mistake a fisher for a cougar, please stay in the city!!:rolleyes: Cougars average 120-150lbs and are anywhere from 5ft to 7ft long. How can one mistake a fisher for a cougar?? A huge out of ordinary fisher would go 30lbs.:rolleyes:
 
Yes the one I saw many years ago was a tan colour and had a honkin' long tail. I have only ever seen one (live) fisher, and they just are not the same critter at all. Length, colour, head shape, fur type, everything is different. Kind of like mistaking a coyote for a rabbit I think......

Doug
 
Yep,the "thing"that I saw years ago looked like Davey's pic,only it was all black with yellow eyes.My girlfriend at the time saw it first and pointed it out to me.I believe she said "What the hell is that"?

Davey, what would the one you posted have weighed?
I'm guessing around 80lbs? Maybe 90????

Bill,again,I know what you are saying and no offense was taken,I'm sure some people have made mistakes in identifying different things that they have seen.
I know I didn't.
Pretty sure my old workin pal didn't either, but the one he saw recently wasn't black.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanism -->

Many examples of melanism are known among felines. Melanism is due to changes in the agouti gene which controls banding of black and light areas on the hair shaft. Leopards and jaguars with this condition are often called panthers or black panthers (although pumas are also known as panthers, there are no verified cases of melanism in that species). However, leopards, jaguars, lions and tigers are all members of the Panthera genus. One good example of melanism expressed within a certain animal community is that of the leopard population in Malaysia, South East Asia, in which case up to 50% of the population has melanism. That is one reason why black panthers are so commonly sighted in those rainforests. . Better resistance to viruses may also explain the greater prevalence of black leopards in those areas.
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It is probable that melanism is a favorable evolutionary mutation with a selective advantage under certain conditions for its possessor, since it is more commonly found in regions of dense forest, where light levels are lower. Melanism can also be linked to beneficial mutations in the immune system.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther -->

There are no authenticated cases of truly melanistic pumas. Black pumas have been reported in Kentucky, one of which had a paler belly. There have also been reports of glossy black pumas from Kansas and eastern Nebraska. These are known as the North American Black Panther (NABP) and are cryptozoological animals. However no one has ever taken a picture of a black puma, no breeder in the world has ever been able to produce one, and no hunter has ever shot one. All breeders of pumas in the world agree that the 'Black Puma' is nothing more than a myth. This is probably due to most people being inexperienced in what different breeds of cats actually look like and mistaking one breed for another.
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So assuming people are actually seeing black big cats, we've either got:

1) a significant population of 'mutated' puma's (see 'melanism' above), which would be unprecedented in the scientific community and should be attracting someone's attention. It would also explain their successful re-introduction and population expansion (see 'advantages' above).

-or-

2) Some mis-identified black Jaguars or Leopards that (having escaped captivity) are surviving in our environment, and possibly reproducing... seems to be it would be easier to mistake a jaguar for a cougar/puma than it would be to mistake a Fisher for one. Note the yellow eyes (as mentioned by Boney in his sighting above):

frace%20-%20black%20jaguar.jpg


whoa... sorry... geeked out there for a minute ;-)

/gc
 
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There are at least two in the area I live. The trapper I know saw them a few times last winter. He saw a black one clear a 66 foot wide forest road in two jumps...I am skeptical that a fisher could be capable of this. I know this guy well and he is not prone to exaggeration and has extensive experience and knowlege of game. I also have no doubts about his ability to distinguish a cougar from a coyote, fisher or bobcat, since he traps all of them!
 
BIGREDD said:
The Black one that Boney saw was well documented in that area... I heard at least five reports of the same cat. When did you see it boney?
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I'm not sure if it was the summer of 83 or 84,but one or the other.South of Benlock road in Grafton Ontario.There is an old road allowance that runs behind a campground(formerly a KOA).Anyway there used to be a ball diamond at the very back of the park next to the road allowance and we saw it back there on the edge of the ball field by the old road.

My buddy claims to have recently seen a "cougar" (although his sighting is of the garden variety tawny coloured) in the north eastern edges of the Northumberland Forest.
 
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