Mountain Lion Tracks in New York State?

by Maria
(Binghamton NY, USA.)

I live in Binghamton NY (New York state) right on the edge of PA (for Europeans PA stands for Pennsylvania). My husband and I walk my dog in the back of my house that has a whole mountain behind it and we always see tracks of animals and check them out without tracking book.

Well Sunday there was snow in the back still and we came upon these tracks with a tail mark in the snow.

Never saw anything like this. I got my tracking book and followed the prints it was definitely a cat track and it look exactly like the mountain lion’s track from my book.

The hind pads were right next to each other almost look like they were one big print. They were so close to each other and the front tracks: one was in front of the other but with each track there was a tail mark.

From what I could see in the tracks, I could see the special lobes the book talks about. It came out of the woods from the power lines way in back of my house and stayed on the edge of the tree line and went right back in the woods.

We do have a lot of deer that bed down back there. It could have been just be traveling through because I have never seen these tracks in 12 yrs.

Then I think my dog goes for a walk with my husband every day when he gets home back there. She is old and not feeling very good.

Do you think from her peeing back there he or she smells the sickness???

I really think this is a mountain lion. What else would have cat tracks and a tail drag???????? and the tracks matched perfectly…..????

Please let me know what you think thank you……

Maria


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Mountain Lon Tracks in New York State?

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Feb 29, 2012Recolonisation? NEW
by: Michael

The number one authority on whether you could see a puma in NY state comes from the IUCN Red List. They say:

“…and records of pumas in northeastern Canada and the eastern US are on the rise, indicating possible recolonization (M. Kelly pers. comm. 2007).”

In other words you could well be seeing mountain lion tracks despite the entire population of pumas in the eastern regions of the USA being hunted to extinction within 200 years of the European settlers first landing in America (1600s).

Personally, I would say it is definitely possible and you seem pretty good at reading tracks so my conclusion would be that you quite possibly have seen mountain lion tracks.

Note: sometimes large dogs make similar prints. One distinguishing feature is the rear paw pad of the puma with the double indentation and no claw marks. Dogs make caw marks as their claws are not retractable.

Please keep us updated.


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