MOUNTAIN LION TALE - Readers Respond

(02/16/2009)

Responses to a possible sighting of a mountain lion published last week from the Times Record-Roane County Reporter: Dear Editor, I believe mountain lions do live in West Virginia. A few years ago in Jackson County, my daughter heard a strange noise in the woods. She said it sounded like an opera singer. Later that week I saw an animal that looked like your picture (long tail, tawny colored body). We called the game warden and he said it was probably just passing through our area. - A. S. Dear Editor, I think your cougar is a grey fox in summer coat or a coyote pup. I think it's more likely a grey fox, because of some features it has. Some grey foxes shed out in the summer so much that their coats are as smooth as short-haired dogs. And all gray foxes have the tawny color, but some have a lot more. Further, because grey foxes climb trees, they move in a very catlike manner. The first one I saw was chasing a rabbit. I thought it was some species of cat. In fact, the Spanish thought that it was a species of cat. They called it the mountain cat (El Gato de Monte) when they encountered it in Mexico. (Its range goes from the US-Canadian border to Colombia and Venezuela). In summer, some grey foxes shed out so much that they actually turn even more tawny. It's possible that there could be cougars in West Virginia. They have been sightings in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that many experts think might be legitimate. But if there are, they are extremely rare -- this would be a remnant population. - S.W. Dear Editor, I wrote a few years ago to tell you about a big cat on a Calhoun gas well site. I wasn't drinking or on that funny weed. - C.S. Dear Editor, Creston's Alvin Engelke has all the conspiracy theories about such things. Have you consulted him? - T.E. Click the links below for more Hur Herald articles about mountain lions Catamounts, Panthers And Mountain Lions Mountain Lion Feedback Giant Mountain Lion Killed In Calhoun? Calhoun Mountain Lion Pure Fiction Critters In the Deep Woods

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