I'm not surprised.

I know people, including my wife, whom I believe entirely credible stating that they have seen mountain lions in this very region. Two were spotted in Hammond, which is 70 miles south of Massena on Rt 37.
I have never seen one, nor the signs of one, but it sure makes me think as I sit on deer watch. Something might be stalking me.

I've also heard of populations living in the more rural part of WV. I have seen pictures of large cats, a few are even black. A video by a farmer in Pendelton County has been confirmed to show a black panther. So why is the DNR not taking this seriously?

It is good cougar country up there, there was a sighting about 30min from my house about 2weeks ago. I would not be surprised at all if I find one in my woods.

To wvboy I also saw the picture from Pendleton county and also the results of the analysed picture. The picture was a clever production of someone's computer. We have a tremendous amount of wonderful hunting dogs in my area of WV which happens to be 20 miles from the Pend. sighting. As a Conservation Officer I relied on the information that the dog hunters gave me. The dog hunters say that there are no mountain lions in WV or they would have treed one. Here in WV it is legal to run your dogs 365 days a year. Excellent dogs are the pride of many people in my area and I would put them up against any dogs in the country. I have hunted bear behind a lot of the dogs and know what they can do. Also I trapped the remote Dolly Sods area for years and caught nothing but bobcats and some very large ones of those and that was when exposed deer carcases were legal to trap on. I believe that a mountain lion would love to find a deer carcess in the snow.

In the Everglades, where there IS an abysmally small panther population (about 100), one or two are killed on the roads every year. That is a place where roads are extremely scarce. On the rare occasion one travels north out of the glades, it is almost immediately killed on the highway or by a hunter. Why no road-kills in these places that claim to have cougars? It all sounds like a typical case of black panther one-upmanship--no one can be considered a real outdoorsman without a black panther sighting, or at least knowing a local preacher who's seen one. This naturally leads directly to the lame efforts of all mountain men to prove the state agencies are all lying to cover up some panther conspiracy.

Also remember, one or two mountain lions that may actually stray into New York do not a "population" make. Georgia DNR will attest to this day that there is no panther population in GA--and rightfully so--even though a Florida panther was just killed there (a terrible, irresponsible tragedy, by the way). Details, folks. Details.

Even here in S. Florida, when a man brings in a hair sample it usually is from a yellow Labrador.

ANOTHER REASON TO CARRY!!! At all times!

My mother saw one in Vermont and a guy I used to work with saw one here in Mass while driving cab along with two other sightings that have come to my ear. If there are catamounts in Vermont and Massachusetts, how can there not be catamounts in New York?

dont you know they are just figments of your imagination . giant bobcats running around with cardboard tails on just to fool you .fishers on stilts to make you think your nuts.

i live in shavertown in ne pa and ive heard people say theve seen em but im not so sure. though my brothers best friend said he say on right in his yard in orange. when the game commision didnt believe him he said next time he would shoot it and they said ya cant the're protected. wonder what their protectin if they say their not here though ;)

007 I included your dogs in the great dog comment that I made on this question. I am sure that you have very fine dogs. How many mountain lions have your dogs treed?
All the dogs hunters here in Grant county and I'
m sure you know some of them keep telling that absolutely their dogs would have treed one if they were here. When I was working I begged everyone to show me a track or scat and no one ever could. The only two I know of were in Pocahontas county. A guy bought two cubs in Florida and when they got too big to take care of and cost too much to feed he turned them loose. They went to the farmer next door and killed a couple of his sheep, He shot one and when the Conservation Officer got there he shot the other. The guy had to pay for the sheep and also received a citation and had to pay a fine for turning them loose.

I'm from pa and i've seen some pictures of claims to be mountain lions around different parts of our state. I wouldn't be shocked if one or two were credible and the game commission is up to another one of their tricks but i think until i have a dead one laying at my feet it would be tough to believe.

I'll believe it when I see it. More likely a Bobcat or even a Lynx. There is now active population of Mountain Lions anywhere close to NY. There have been the few and far between where a captive cougar has been released into the wild. However, not enough to make a population. I would love to see a population of Mountain Lions back in New York. I would even like to see a population of Wolves back in the state. Unfortunately I believe neither will happen anytime soon.

Did you guys see the video from Minn? That was a police video from about 2 miles from the homestead of the trophy wife's old homestead in Champlin MN.

this is perfect country for mountain lions so why is it so unbelievable? i'll bet there is a population here. you can keep your wolves though!