Cougars ( mountain lions)

[Former Admin]

There have been reports of mountain lions making a comeback along the trail. For many years these animals have been thought of all but extinct along the Appalachian Trail corridor. Anyone know anything about this or have any comments or experiences.

[EarlyRiser]

yeah one walked about seven feet by my head while i was sleeping in july. atleast i think it was, or it was a very large bobcat but i think it mighta been a mountain lion. it was pretty scary.

[TOW]

yeah one walked about seven feet by my head while i was sleeping in july. atleast i think it was, or it was a very large bobcat but i think it mighta been a mountain lion. it was pretty scary.

mountain lions are predators and we humans are prey. they are stealth fighters as well and they know their place around people along with bobcats as well......what i'm saying here is that no wild cat walked by your head within seven feet while you were asleep.....how would you know anyway, you were asleep, right?

all in your dreams buddy.....................

[Kerosene]

I've posted before that I saw something just south of Harpers Ferry in October 2002 that was definitely feline and certainly not a bobcat or a lynx (or an overgrown house cat!).

I was about 5 miles south of town at the end of a 55-mile section hike from Front Royal on a warm, clear day around noon. I came around a corner and over a slight rise and saw this animal about 40 yards in front of my on the trail. Without thinking I clapped my hands to scare it off (I should have just stopped and observed for awhile). The cat looked at me and high-tailed it into the woods with a grace and a long tail that could only be feline. It was colored a light brown, darker on top, and was the height of a large dog but not as heavily built as dogs that large. Hard to believe that it was a cougar in that area at that time of day, but nothing to this day nothing else seems to fit the evidence. As I passed by I realized that I might now be being stalked and kept an eye out for the next few miles.

[Jumpstart]

We think we heard one, (but really, might be a bobcat, who knows?) At Quarry Gap Shelter in PA, at 3:00 in the morning. Scared the daylights out of me.

[highway]

I guess if I had to choose, I'd much prefer a black bear encounter than one with a cougar; they really hunt for a living!

[Kerosene]

I just read an on-line article about cougars supposedly in the Connecticut/Massachusetts area: Mountain Lions in Connecticut?

[cabalot]

I just read an on-line article about cougars supposedly in the Connecticut/Massachusetts area: Mountain Lions in Connecticut?

i lived in CT from 94-03. my supervisor lived in washington,CT, very rural area in north west CT. he saw big cats in his back yard, not sure if cougar or mountain lion but definately a big wild cat.

black bears are shy scavengers, foragers. big wild cats look for prey. they hunt and are territorial. i dont think a camper cooking dinner has to worry but someone moving thru a cats habitat could be a target. in CA mountain bikers have recently been attacked. i think it was because the cats saw a fast moving target and attact by instinct. and they are used to people.

from what i have seen on discovery channel, animals that hunt do not like the taste of human flesh because of our diets, but attack because of they are territorial and instinctively take advantage of any chance of a meal.

[Youngblood]

from what i have seen on discovery channel, animals that hunt do not like the taste of human flesh because of our diets, but attack because of they are territorial and instinctively take advantage of any chance of a meal.

Just a simple question... how do they know what human flesh taste like?

Youngblood

[mdionne]

i've spotted several black panthers since the sixties. and it's never about hunting. it's about the white man did this and black power that. it's good to see they are congregating at carvers gap to put some unity back into their community

[cabalot]

Just a simple question... how do they know what human flesh taste like?

Youngblood

mostly instinct, i suppose smell to.

[Brrrb Oregon]

mostly instinct, i suppose smell to.

I have heard that there are people from cultures that don't eat a lot of meat that can't stand to be in an American concert hall or theatre. They aren't used to the strong BO.

[smokymtnsteve]

Just a simple question... how do they know what human flesh taste like?

Youngblood

from the big cat neighborhood pot-lucks????

you always have to watch what you eat at those get-togethers.

[Uncle Wayne]

Our shuttle guy last October, Eric, of "A Walk In The Woods" told us some tourist had videoed a panther / mountain lion in a remote area of the Smoky Mtn. park a year or so ago. The story goes that a copy of the video was given to the NPS but they wouldn't admit there were mountain lions in the park and according to them, they couldn't make a positive ID of the animal in the video. After a month or so of being ignored he carried his video to a local TV station and they aired the story and video. With public pressure, Eric said the NPS finally admitted there could be big cats in the park. He said the NPS has set up several "scratch posts" in the backcountry to get a hair sample or claw pattern. No update had been released by the NPS as of last October.
Have any of you that live in the area heard of this before?

[tarbubble]

from what i have seen on discovery channel, animals that hunt do not like the taste of human flesh because of our diets, but attack because of they are territorial and instinctively take advantage of any chance of a meal.

doesn't stop them out here in CA. we just had a mountain biker killed & partially eaten in Orange County, and i just read about a body found near the Mount Laguna section of the PCT that had been partially eaten by a cougar (no word yet on cause of death).

so if you see a cougar stalking you, don't count on it thinking "nah, humans taste bad." of course, you'll probably never see it... (insert evil laugh)

[smokymtnsteve]

black panthers are usually seen near big foot.

[copythat]

I just read an on-line article about cougars supposedly in the Connecticut/Massachusetts area: Mountain Lions in Connecticut?

i say never say never and so does paul rego (quoted in the article), whom i know personally. (btw, he is an exceptionally talented artist, painting fish swimming in their fave environments. i've also seen him call a great horned owl in from a distance to right across the other side of a pond. cool, huh?) he's also very savvy when it comes to cool mammals and if he says he ain't seen a big cat i believe it's cause it ain't been there, but i'm willing to be proved wrong, honest i am.

another btw ... i lived in washington, ct, not far from victoria cherniske's horse farm, and had the pleasure of chatting with some old-timers and with the woman who now serves as game warden in the area. they all said they never saw truly big cats there but the ridges about the shepaug river were TEEMING with bobcat. the o-t (old-timers) said people used to hike up into the hills and come back with one over each shoulder. they were hunted ALMOST to ... well, what do you call it when something's not there any more but it still exists someplace else? not extinction, but ... well, chased away. they were chased away. the game warden said they're back now, though not in the number of those days years ago when nobody was careless enough to leave kitties or kiddies outside by themselves.

another another btw ... we had lots of cool birds and deer and lost tourists and stuff and ONE day we had a MOOSE through the yard there in washington. the game warden confirmed it (tracks and nibbling pattern WAY up in the trees) and i thought that was cool for washington ct but far as hard as i hiked onto the ridges and as hard as i peered into the rural dark there in the town named after our first president, i never did see a cat larger than the one my roomate let out to roam.

[Reverse]

My sister took pictures of one in her backyard in Connecticut. (Not a bobcat).

[Wiklet]

There are definitely mountain lions in NE Connecticut (Natchaug State Forest area) -- There have been sightings in my neighborhood. Not sure about western CT where the AT runs, though.

[Singletrack]

The hair on my head stood straight up when I ran upon 2 Black Panthers just before Carter Gap Shelter, hiking South in 2000. Their growling scared the $%#& out of me. Both ran off to the right of me, and I ran down the Trail, the other way. Later talked to a Forest Ranger friend in the Nantahalas, and he said they have quiet a few sightings. And are fairly common for the locals. They were the largest cats I have ever seen in person. So if you plan to stay around Carter Gap Shelter, sleep easy, you will probably have more problems with mice than Panthers.