Cougar report stirs debate
DEC: No evidence population exists in New York state
Are mountain lions roaming around the Capital Region?
It’s a conversation that pops up every several years after residents claim they’ve spotted one of the large cats prowling around their properties.
The latest potential sighting was detailed on Nextdoor, a social media app, where a Guilderland resident claimed to have spotted one of the big cats on Meadowdale Road last week.
That prompted a vigorous debate, with people sharing their own purported sightings across upstate New York — or not.
Another Guilderland resident cited their own glimpse but said they were rebuffed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
“No mistake in identifying them, not even close to looking like a bobcat!” the person wrote, referring to an animal relation that the state agency said is often confused for its larger mammalian counterpart. “The long tail and smaller head is a dead giveaway!”
State wildlife officials have long insisted there are no breeding mountain lions — also known as eastern cougars — in the state, officially designating their status as extirpated, or locally extinct, since the late 1800s.
Yet the DEC has confirmed “a few isolated sightings” in recent years, including a 140-pound male cougar that passed
through the Lake George area in late 2015.
Halfmoon officials issued an advisory in June 2019 after several residents reported a sighting. DEC at the time acknowledged the reports but stopped short of confirming if the creature was a mountain lion.
DEC did not make a wildlife expert available to the Times Union for an interview.
Each confirmed mountain lion sighting, according to a fact sheet provided by the state agency, involved cougars that are not native to New York.
“A couple of sightings involved captive mountain lions that escaped from licensed facilities in New York State,” it read. “Another sighting involved a wild cougar that traveled through New York as it trekked nearly 1,800 miles east from its native population in South Dakota.”
In the U.S., with the exception of Florida, no states east of the Mississippi River have had mountain lion breeding
populations since the 1900s.
But they are in the Canadian province of Ontario, which is close to New York, according to the provincial government. Those animals are considered endangered.
While DEC receives several reports of cougar sightings each year, most are cases of mistaken identity, according to the state agency. “Cougars are commonly mistaken for wild bobcats, fishers and coyotes, as well as domestic house cats and dogs.”
Residents who said they spotted the creatures — none of whom responded to interview requests — appeared to be aware that mountain lions can be mistaken for bobcats.
What’s the difference between the two?
The tail is one indicator. Mountain lion tails can range from 26 to 32 inches, according to DEC, while those of bobcats are much shorter at between 5 and 6 inches for both sexes.
So is their size: Mountain
lions are significantly larger.
Next to the jaguar, mountain lions are the largest North American cat, with weights ranging from 80 to 225 pounds, with an average of 140. Their length varies from 5 to 9 feet.
Both bobcat sexes can be greater than 30 pounds, with averages for males and females being 21 and 14 pounds, respectively, according to DEC. Body length for males is 34 inches and 30 inches for females.
Bobcat sightings, in fact, are on the rise in Connecticut and New York as populations increase after limits on hunting were enacted, CBS New York reported in February, with a state wildlife biologist confirming their presence statewide except for New York City and Long Island.
The creatures are also finding more room to roam as acreage once used for harvesting timber and farming returns to nature, the outlet reported.