#Mountain lion in pa how to

Cougars are commonly mistaken for wild bobcats, fishers and coyotes, as well as domestic housecats and dogs. While DEC receives several reports of cougar sightings each year, it is mostly cases of mistaken identity of other animals.

#Mountain lion in pa how to

How to Report a SightingДEC staff will only investigate reports where physical evidence of tracks, scat, or hair exist or when a captive animal has been reported to have escaped. More details on their natural history and distribution are available on the Eastern Cougar page. Another sighting involved a wild cougar that traveled through New York as it trekked nearly 1,800 miles east from its native population in South Dakota. A couple of sightings involved captive mountain lions that escaped from licensed facilities in New York State. Each sighting involved cougars that are not native to New York. They have been absent from this state since the late 1800s however, there have been a few isolated sightings. The final product of this project was to create a mailing list of forested sites meeting the criteria set forth by the FFSF.Eastern Cougar Sightings Mountain Lions in New YorkД®astern cougars (mountain lions) do not have a native, self sustaining population in New York State.

The goal of this project was to conduct a geographic analysis to identify and prioritize a list of forest landowners in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. To protect existing forested land within Pennsylvania, organizations such as the Foundation for Sustainable Forests (FFSF) help private landowners manage their land in a manner that both protects natural ecosystems and yields economic gain through sustainable management and selective harvesting. While significant portions of forested land are preserved by the government, roughly 71 percent is owned by private landowners (NW PA Woodland Association), much of which is heavily fragmented due to agriculture and urban development. The entire Western PennsylvaniaВ after being selected as the winning paper/plan.ДЄcross the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, forests cover nearly 60 percent of land (NW PA Woodland Association), providing local residents and passing tourists with ecosystem services and aesthetic scenery. Our plan is nowВ the standard practice of the FFSF for Allowed theВ FFSF to contact private landowners toВ create partnerships for sustainableВ forestry practices. Interdisciplinary studyВ using GIS to select sites based onВ spatial suitability analysis. Using GIS Spatial Analysis for Selecting Forested Sites within Mercer County, Pennsylvania, for the Foundation for Sustainable Forests (FFSF) вЂ“ Bartels, Garcia, et al., 2015 The benefits of increased ecosystem functioning and population control are discussed in addition to the proposed site of reintroduction (Gugliotta, 2013). Using GIS software, suitable habitat in Pennsylvania near (insert location) was selected because it provided the mountain lions (variables like remoteness, food, cover). Key predators like mountain lions are essential for population control of overpopulated game species such as white tail deer and rabbits.

The return of top predator in an ecosystem is expected to have drastic effects on the habitats they inhabit. Sightings have increased on the east coast as mountain lions move back into the range they once inhabited. Today there are estimated to be more than 30,000 mountain lions in North America. Some scientists believe the subspecies was forced into extinction altogether with individuals not killed outright or displaced by habitat fragmentation/destructing being forced to assimilate into southern or western populations of panthers. Once native to the east coast, the eastern mountain lion was extirpated from the majority of its range. habitat suitable for the reintroduction of mountain lions (Puma concolor) was chosen in Pennsylvania. Using GIS spatial analysis of key variables such as canopy cover, land use, prey availability, etc. Variables examined using GIS included: land cover, tree canopy density, elevation, distance to water, roadway density, prey species abundance, distance from human populations, and land ownership. Published Paper for The State of Pennsylvania on a site suitability analysis for selecting habitats withinВ the state to release mountain lions into their extirpated range. Determining Acceptable Reintroduction Ranges in Pennsylvania for Extirpated Mountain Lions Through the Use of GIS Mapping вЂ“ Bartels & Wooten, 2014