[QUOTE=Bluey;7796554]
We also have a resident bobcat, but it is a tall, leggy, skinnier one and about half the size of a mountain lion.[/QUOTE]
Could yours be a lynx?
Yeah, I know, technically bobcats are lynx, too, but a different species. I mean the one we call a lynx.
[QUOTE=NoDQhere;7796867]
I’m sure there are Mountain Lions in the east, but the one in the pictures isn’t :). The one found in Connecticut walked there from Western South Dakota. [/QUOTE]
A couple of years back there were rumors of a mountain lion in these parts. There were game cam photos and other photos that everyone was arguing about. Then about a year later one was killed out east. I thought it was NJ, may have been somewhere else. They DNAed it and found it to be from a western gene pool, not a native lion. OK, so it walked from out west to the east coast… and where are we? Right in the middle. I-80 corridor more or less. So yeah, now if someone tells me they’ve seen something, I don’t automatically discount it. We may not have a population, but who says we don’t have tourists wandering through?
[QUOTE=riderank__makebank;7796005]
That’s definitely a cougar. [/QUOTE]
:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
I vote mtn lion. We have 'em in Va. One thing I noticed…they have VERY long tails that are very active, swinging and in constant motion when I had one walk by. So a photo of one from any angle would have to catch it still. I think the photo has it just swung outa sight. That dark area is the dark anal area hair color I think. JMHO!
I haven’t read all the posts, but the ears and short tail are dead giveaways! What appears to be a long tail is actually its right hind leg. Bobcats are also a bit chunkier in the body and neck, albeit smaller, than cougars.
I vote Bobcat in the game camera photo. But, that doesn’t mean that cougars are not in your area. I think they are getting pretty prolific in all areas of the Lower 48, just like coyotes. The cougars seem to be able to adapt to human areas just as easily.
As for cougars killing horses - we lost 2 mature Hereford cows to cougars back in 2008. This was outside of Wichita, KS. Prints all over in the dirt, no coyote prints anywhere. Kill method and damage to carcass consistent with cougars… Makes me think they would not hesitate to take down a horse, given the chance. Both these cows were in a herd of 50+, and were killed in a shallow draw about 100 yds from the house - barn - shed area. They weren’t far out in a 400 acre pasture…
it is a bobcat. ears tail and overall size relative to the surrounding plantings.
One of the greatest pleasures I have had on horseback is sitting and watching a bobcat hunt outside the arena
we stood quietly while the cat did her business.
we also have cougar in the area, heard but not seen except by one neighbor.
I would do nothing but would not let dogs run loose, more for coyote and raccoon danger than that of any cat.
cats are more warry of humans than not. More likely when near, they try to avoid.
I vote bobcat . The head is too square and short, the ears too pointed and the spots behind the ears too prominent , the body too short and the nonchalant pace typical of a bobcat.
That second shot sure looks like a long tail but it has to be part of the leg.
I’ve seen several bobcats either at the break of dawn or twilight ; never ever seen a mountain lion although we have both around here- south of sf, ca.
I’ve even seen a bobcat out in kern county along the river in the watershed( no water right now)
That is a bobcat.
Someone on EquineSite got a good picture of a mountain lion taken in RI a couple of months ago. Deer hunters in the area have been saying they’ve seen ML spoor for years. DEM denies everything. Their line is, “bring me a body and we’ll believe you”. There supposedly no bobcats either.
Now this one is a mountain lion :lol:: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/video-shows-california-mountain-lion-on-top-of-car/
Ever come out in the morning and find kitty pawprints on your car? Can you imagine the ones this one would leave? (although an article I read said there was not a mark, print, or scratch on the car and the people would never have known if not for the video).
Anyway, isn’t this a beautiful creature?
[QUOTE=rcloisonne;7803370]
Someone on EquineSite got a good picture of a mountain lion taken in RI a couple of months ago. Deer hunters in the area have been saying they’ve seen ML spoor for years. DEM denies everything. Their line is, “bring me a body and we’ll believe you”. There supposedly no bobcats either.[/QUOTE]
We had the same thing at my grandparent’s farm up in Ontario a few years back! Plain as day a cougar walked across the road outside our house and then trotted across one of the fields. It was seen again a couple weeks later in a back field trotting across from woods to woods. We tried to alert the local natural resources/forestry office and they said “Nope! No cougars out here! Only in the West!”. When we talked to local farmers & hunters they all laughed and said cougars had been back in the area for 5 years or so but they’d given up on the government believing it 
The wildlife people cannot officially say “yes, they’re here” without a body. That makes sense. They have to stick to proof, that’s their job.
As I said before, I’ve talked to game wardens here in PA about this. What I’ve been told is that most of the sightings are bobcats or something else, just like in the original photos here: sure looks like a mountain lion, but it turns out to not be, so no, game officials have to be very careful and not take people’s word for what they saw because almost always they’re wrong. The Game Commission speaks officially so they HAVE to be positive and cannot make statements without proof. That’s their job.
So officially it’s no-go without proof. Turns out there have been a number of game-camera shots of cougars that turned out to be game camera shots from Western states people tried to pass off as being in the East. Another reason for the abundance of caution shown by officials.
But back to the game wardens with whom I spoke: the above is the official view; privately, there are some woodsmen they absolutely trust who have told them they’ve seen cougars, so in reality the Game Commission wardens are not surprised they’d be here, but again, they cannot state to the public “well, he said so.” That would be irresponsible.
And, as stated before, they clarify that so far any mountain lions in the East, like the one killed in CT, are a Western species that has traveled East as opposed to the native Eastern mountain lion.
Where I am at, we very rarely have mountain lion spottings and what I heard is the DNR told everyone they were mistaken. Regardless, the gal I know (who is positive it was a mountain lion) and who lost a horse, lost it because it killed itself going through the gate to get away, not because it was actually attacked.
I like the loud music idea.
FWIW, I see a leg not a long tail. 
I need to get some cameras set up!
Most definitely a bobcat.
Not guessing. 
I’ve handled and rehabbed quite a few of them, hands on experience. The black tip of the short tail is clearly visible.
Nice healthy one too!
Large livestock isn’t considered at risk around bobcats. Cool game camera catch!
Bobcat. If you look closely at a blowup of the first photo you can see very faint spots, especially on the sides toward the belly.
Bobcat. We have lots of cougars in these parts and I know of only one attack on a mare in the mountains 15 years ago. She survived with some shoulder scarring.
i am not concerned though my horses are when they smell one on a trail ride. They are far more likely to go for deer or, as they age and can’t hunt so well, family dogs.
That is definitely a bobcat. People look closer…there is a bob tail, not a long tail.
:lol: too funny. All you people saying “bobcat”: don’t you realize that the OP corrected it to be bobcat back on page 1, post #5?
We did see that, but many others subsequently weighed in so speaking for myself, I was responding to those posts.
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