I found a story in my hometown newspaper,about a mountain lion sighting in SW Virginia near the AT.Go into www.wythenews.com and click on “News”.The story has a date of 17 March but,the sighting was on the 6th of March.Mountain Lion sighting, is the title of the story.
Judge for yourself,is it fact, or just good moonshine the ole boy was drinking.
Bill Harris
Mountain lions used to populate the entire United States. As settlers moved west they hunted and drove the mountain lions with them. The lions have since started to make tracks back east. My parents are in northern Michigan and mountain lions have been there for a few years now.
Zaphod
A few large cats thought to be Mt. lions have been seen around houses at Wintergreen resort which is right on the AT
just south of Waynesboro Va. Photos of the cats have been taken and they are impressive. The pics. of bears in hot tubs are very cool as well.
totally Boagus
Without a doubt, in my judgement mountain lions, pumas, panthers, painters, etc…are in southwestern virginia and western north carolina. they are few and far in between, but they are there. most are probably releasee’s from “zoo’s” and “traveling circuses”, but a few may be wild from birth. I personally have seen cat tracks interspersed with deer tracks in a muddy logging trail in such a way that it indicated the cat was chasing the deer. the tracks were huge, the size of saucers, too big for bobcats, and bobcats don’t normally try to chase down adult deer. I know of a recently retired game warden in the NW north carolina area who privately admitted there are lions in the area, but will not go on record. there are so many deer in this part of the country, a couple of lions could live there, never get closed to civilization or be seen, and never go hungry.
Big Dee
Big Dee is right they are probably captive releases. There have been sightings in western Mass recently of a mountain Lion that Fish and Game believes is a release. They had been finding carcasses of animals partially eaten and suspected a lion but recently found some scat and confirmed it.
Big B
We have had these ‘ghost sightings’ in PA as well. I was talking about this with a game warden I ran into a year or so ago, and he (again, “not on the record”) told me that the Dept. of fish and wildlife is actually conducting releases to try and reintroduce the cat to the area. Had it not been from a warden himself, I’d throw this one in the conspiracy theory bin; but either way it is confirmation that they are around, even as rare as they might be.
3D
I personally saw a mt. lion a bit after Dicks Dome Shelter in Va in June, 2003. First time ever and I felt extremely lucky to have the sighting. All kinds of cool sites on a thru of the A.T. !
Yo-Yo
It would be easy for lions to actually return to virginia on their own.They may have never left in fact.There is also the phenomina called ABC(alien big cats)large cats that are seen where they should in no way be.There are many documented sightings in the UK that never had native felines,these probably came from victorian hunting reserves and private zoos.There have actually been several sightings and (hearings?) of a mountain lion or leopard here on Maui in the past year if you can believe that.If a place can support wild deer it could also support big cats(especially with man helping them migrate).
newb