The sighting of this big cat, caught on camera in Isle of Wight, will be investigated by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.Posted on 05/18/2009 11:27:01 AM PDT by BGHater
Charlie Wooten has been a hunter since 1976 and has seen more than his fair share of wild animals.
His four trail cameras usually catch the occasional black bear roaming around between May and September,but when one of his cameras snapped a photo of an apparent cougar on his property in the Isle of Wight Courthouse area, he wasn't sure what he saw.
"I'm no expert," he said, "but it doesn't look like a bobcat to me."
Wooten, who primarily hunts white-tailed deer and turkeys, showed the photo to 20 fellow hunters, and "19 of them said it wasn't a bobcat," he said.
Wooten's big cat photo awaits confirmation,but similar sightings in South Hampton Roads aren't without precedent.
Aaron Proctor, a district wildlife biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the department is working to verify Wooten's reported cougar sighting. Proctor said the department gets about six to 12 big cat sightings on the Southside a year.
The department allowed big cats to be pets 15 to 20 years ago,Proctor said,but has since no longer does.
While the sight of a big cat might be rare in the state, the growing population of black bears is coinciding with sightings that are becoming the norm in many regions during the spring and summer months.
With an increasing number of bears in Virginia, the potential for bear-human encounters is greater.
Wooten's cameras in rural Isle of Wight catch two types of bears every two to three days. His cameras are within a 3- to 4-mile range of his property, "but I've never laid eyes on one," he said.
The sighting of this big cat, caught on camera in Isle of Wight, will be investigated by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailypress.com ...
Ok, so are mountain lions rare there? Come to CA you can catch all you want and take them home, just don’t let the enviros catch ya!
“Looks like what I would call a mountain lion. Hmm...”
Mountain Lions, Cougars, Pumas, Catamounts, Ghost Cats and maybe some other names all refer to the same beast.
Widdel Wabbits
A precious little girl walks into a pet shop and asks, in the sweetest little lisp, between two missing teeth,
“Excuthe me, mithter, do you keep widdle wabbits?”
As the shopkeeper’s heart melts, he gets down on his knees so that he’s on her level and asks,
“Do you want a widdle white wabbit, or a thoft and fuwwy bwack wabbit, or maybe one like that cute widdle bwown wabbit over there?”
She, in turn, blushes, rocks on her heels, puts her hands on her knees, leans forward and says, in a tiny quiet voice,
“I don’t think my python weally givth a thit.”
I understand that (biology teacher here) but I was trying to use something other than cougar since the word has been used to mean something altogether different.
lol - good one!
Two wrongs don’t make a Wight
Here kitty, kitty, kitty. . .
Right proportions for a panther, bobcats are chunkier.
No doubt that it is a mountain lion. I’ve hunted them for years and was even involved in a DFG study of their kills. In the western US the mountain lion habitat is a direct overlay of the deer habitat. If you have deer then there are lions around. Lions in big city parks and near housing tracts are a catastrophe looking to happen. In rural or more remote areas you will probably never even see the big cats that are there. A few well trained hounds can show you in a short time what you have. Without the dogs your chances of finding or seeing this cat again are slim.
“I understand that (biology teacher here)...”
Well, slap me hard. It seems my humor detector shut down for a minute.
How do you get a cougar on a camera? How’s it balance itself?
LOL I won’t slap you, I think I wasn’t very clear (when I reread what I wrote). I was musing out loud and sometimes that doesn’t come across here. We are on the same page!
I know we had them in the Mnts. of NM where I lived and I never saw one. My husband did, once, I think the story goes that it leaped out of a tree, right over his head (he was on a horse). He grew up there and I think that was the only time he saw one. They are very stealthy. I certainly wouldn’t want to meet a hungry one!
When Mrs. Wong had a white baby, Mr. Wong said "two Wongs don't make a white!"
Grandpa Wong said "it was purely occidental!"
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