December 4, 2005
On Dec. 2nd, the Daily Stary of Oneonta, NY reported that 2 local men saw what appeared to be a mountain lion or cougar cross the road in front of them as they drove to hunt deer.
"What was that?" one asked.
"I think it was a coyote," his friend responded.
"It didn’t look like a coyote to me," the first said. "It looked more like a big cat."
They slowed down and saw a large, tawny animal with short, round ears and a long tail crouching in the tall grass. The creature immediately ran off into the brush.
While there have been other local sightings, the Department of Environmental Conservation contends that there are no mountain lions or cougars in New York State.
According to John Lutz, co-founder of the Eastern Puma Research Network: "I’d like to set the record straight … there are definitely WILD big cats in the Empire State. The majority of WILD mountain lions are in the Adirondack Park Region, but smaller populations survive in the Catskills & Finger Lake Regions."
The organization claims more than 900 reported sightings of these big cats in the state since 1965, many of them "from credible witnesses with backgrounds in forestry, law enforcement and wildlife."
Have any of our readers from the great state of New York seen one of these mystery cats, an "out of place" mountain lion or cougar? If so, please comment in this blog.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Filed under Alien Big Cats, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Extinct, Eyewitness Accounts, Mystery Cats, Out of Place