For example, leopards and jaguars, normally spotted cats, have a melanistic color morph, the 'black panther,' the black leopard or black jaguar. Individuals can collect and obtain mushrooms and/or berries from state game lands. If we say it ain't so, it ain't so! Several populations of Gray Squirrels scattered around the country are black, and recently I heard of a neighborhood of black Eastern Chipmunks. Once a hunter obtains six licenses, the hunter cant purchase additional licenses without first harvesting deer and reporting them. Confirming an animal is infected with CWD requires laboratory testing of the brain or lymph nodes of the head. While mountain lion attacks are rare, they do happen. Our visitor is also far too tall to be a house cat, so thats out. But please note that it is unlawful to put food out around the camera to attract wildlife to the area. How old must I be to mentor a mentored hunter? Please remember to be respectful of private property while visiting. I can't dismiss the eye-witnesses I've interviewed. New hotline info. It could, of course, also be an exceptionally big house cat, but how to find out? Electronic bikes are not allowed to be used on state game lands at this time. What would account for the long tails? Is the Pennsylvania Hunter-Trapper Education Course available online? It is also unlawful to attach the camera to a tree in such a way that it causes damage. The Game Commissions CWD Response Plan was adopted by the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners in July 2020 and was developed in collaboration with Pennsylvania stakeholders, CWD experts from state and federal wildlife agencies and non-government organizations from across the country. Because the neck bothered me, I decided to do some Photoshop on the puma in the lower left, moving his head higher up and changing the image to a contrasty black and white - to give a silhouette for comparision. The Mentored Hunting Program has expanded in recent years to offer opportunities to unlicensed hunters of ALL ages. He saw his cat at very close range -- 20 yards or less, and when I pointed out to him that pumas are never black he said that perhaps it was the light. Although it is beneficial to provide contact information in case game wardens have follow-up questions, callers may remain confidential. If you ask me, the answer is yes. By law, all first-time hunters and trappers, regardless of age, must successfully complete Hunter-Trapper Education training before they can buy a Pennsylvania hunting or trapping license. A successful bear hunter must take the bear, along with his or her hunting license and bear license, to a Pennsylvania Game Commission check station within 24 hours of the harvest. The Pennsylvania Game Commissions Operation Game Thief program serves to protect wild birds and wild mammals and encourages those who have information related to wildlife crimes to report details as soon as possible. The most important aspect of the spring turkey season is this timing. Except for Florida, the eastern mountain lion is believed to have extricated from the east coast by 1900. In response to COVID-19, is the Game Commission considering additional hunting opportunities or changes to existing hunting regulations? Click here to find a class in your area. I'm passionate about helping people achieve their dreams, and I believe that education is the key to unlocking everyone's potential. I found tracks of it charging an adult whitetail, followed by its tracks stopping where they met, which indicated it had attached itself to the deer and was trying to bring it down. With all the deer in the area, the cat had plenty of prey and I didnt view it as a potential threat. Isnt trapping just a few folks each year trying to make money from pelts? The decision to burn can be made as late as the morning of the burn. How do I purchase a license or report a harvest in HuntFishPA? Hunters and trappers buying licenses online will continue to be mailed all durable-stock license panels, including harvest tags, and will also be given access to eLicenses. Mentored hunters ages 7 and older can apply for their own antlerless deer licenses, (one antlerless license per mentored permit holder), and DMAP permits. There are no exceptions. Mountain lions weigh 90-160 pounds . CWD is transmitted both directly through animal-to-animal contact and indirectly through food and soil contaminated with bodily excretions including feces, urine and saliva. This framework represents an effort to proactively revise Pennsylvanias season-setting process to respond to declines, while we still have a functional statewide population. What are the 2022-23 Hunting Season and Bag Limits? Obviously, other pumas must be about, and the series of ridges extending north and east and west from my location could all be included as critical habitat as well. What is the Kiboko backpack? Over the last two years I have occasionally posted a Question of the Month soliciting sightings from people who believed that they have seen a mountain lion in Pennsylvania or in other areas in the mid-Atlantic states. Could it be a bobcat? They rejuvenate succulent browse plants preferred by deer and elk, which promotes oak habitats, and their vitally important acorns, and maintains grasses and broadleaf plants sought by brooding turkeys and grouse. Thousands of deer. Have your animal processed in the area in which it was harvested so high-risk parts can be disposed of properly; 5. Callers anywhere in the state can now dial 1-833-PGC-HUNT or 1-833-PGC-WILD to contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Centralized Dispatch Center and be directed appropriately. Harvest tags will continue to be issued in physical form on durable stock. So, couldn't that same argument apply to pumas in the Northeast? I took a few frames and tried enhancing them, lightening them and increasing contrast. This indicates the cat has a minimum shoulder height of 1.5 feet (again, if it was further back when filmed it could be larger). However, evidence of attempt to tag would be harder to prove if the tag was placed around the antler. Are there pumas, or mountain lions, in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic States? In Michigan, there has been multiple sightings of 'black panthers,' animals that were thought to be mountain lions, or pumas, except that they were black. Am I allowed to remove mushrooms and/or berries on state game lands? Smoke will generally dissipate once ignition is complete but may linger in the immediate vicinity for several hours after the burn while downed logs smolder and burn out. Luckily, the camera is static, and there are plenty of objects in the frame that can be used to compare scale and positioning. If you ask me, the answer is yes. For more information, call 866-474-2141 or visit www.sharedeer.org. The board also prohibited the use of rifles in the fall season to potentially further reduce the harvest by 20 percent, statewide. Bringing species back to a community where they are currently absent is an important step to ecological restoration, increasing biodiversity, and returning ecological processes such as seed dispersal or rodent population management to the system. Did they migrate south from Canada? Here in central Pennsylvania we live on the outskirts of what one puma-tracking website has as almost the high point of sightings, extending from north-central Pennsylvania in a southwestern diagonal that extends into the mountains of West Virginia. Cougars had long been targeted by early American settlers paranoid over livestock losses, the agency found, with some states going so far as to offer bounties for dead cougars. Cougars also called mountain lions or pumas are uniquely suited to hunt and kill deer, who not only cause traffic accidents but overgraze to the point of endangering native species and eliminating habitats for smaller animals. I got my start in education as a teacher, working with students in grades K-12. Hunter-Trapper Education course records dating back to 1987 are maintained on a computer database. If you're interested in this, please pass on this link, and if you see a cat, please let me know! WPRAs are selected based on potential pheasant habitat available. We raise pheasants because people like to hunt them. However, jakes have high probability of natural survival to the next year. Most, quite honestly, don't know or can't believe or accept what they saw, they really can't believe their eyes. I'm also a big believer in lifelong learning- there's always something new to learn! Are there pumas, or mountain lions, in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic States? Isnt trapping inhumane and indiscriminate? At one point, there was debate whether that cat should be protected, since its genes were diluted from escapees or released pumas that originated in South America or our West. Male turkeys will mate with multiple hens in a given breeding season, or even in a single day. On that note, I was speaking with a Fed Ex driver recently who told me that one of his colleagues had seen what he swore was a dead mountain lion on the side of a road. They cover large areas of the state; in fact, many counties have only one game warden assigned. "Although I understand why and what (proponents are) trying to say, I do not agree that this would be the case in Pennsylvania without having other major negative implications," he said in an email. Is it lawful to use an inline during the late flintlock season? Consider planting vegetation that provides both food and cover. If it is a cougar/mountain lion, its probably a young one thats wandering around, looking for food. A new late season bull hunt was added this license year and 20 additional bull licenses are available. CWD has since spread from those initial detection sites over a larger geographic area. Who manages Pennsylvanias state game lands system? Is it illegal to feed bears? How Can Hunters Modernize Antlerless Deer License Applications? buy hey, maybe some got out? SUNDAY HUNTING:It is unlawful to hunt on Sundays except foxes, crows and coyotes. Our agency is passionate about our states wild birds and wild mammals. By expanding concurrent seasons statewide, hunters are provided with more opportunities to harvest antlerless deer. Like mad cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep and goats, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, it's caused not by a virus or bacteria, but by abnormal prions, or proteins. This can lead to property damage, or worse, dangerous human-bear interactions. The agency is primarily funded by hunting and furtaker license sales, as well as State Game Lands timber, mineral, oil/gas revenues, a federal excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition, and assets that have been procured with license dollars. But even that little guy isn't prowling the Poconos yet. To date, the Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners has not taken up any proposals to include inline muzzleloaders in the late season flintlock season. Being outdoors is good health care and self-care; however, recommendations for social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19 still apply. Effective July 1, 2013; a $16 fee is charged for issuing a hunter education replacement certificate. With proper management, trapping allows for sustainable use of this valuable wildlife resource. A bobcat gives you a warm, that-kind-of-looks-like-my-cat-but-slightly-bigger feeling. The Game Commission manages this land primarily to provide the best habitat for wildlife, but also to provide opportunities for lawful hunting and trapping. When I first discovered this fresh carcass I examined it for throat punctures, thinking that it may have been killed by a puma. However, the spring season does not impact the overall annual turkey population, due to the timing of when the season opens after peak breeding, and when more than half of the hens have begun incubating eggs. Our smaller Siberian, Mace, is 12 (one foot) at the shoulder and weighs a good 15 pounds. It also reduces confusion about which WMUs are open to antlerless hunting. Where can I see the Game Commissions CWD surveillance results? The State cites that there are no road-kills, and in a heavily trafficed state like Pennsylvania there should be kills. Why cant Pennsylvanias Spring Gobbler season open earlier? Are Pennsylvanians OK with these changes? They ran across my yard, moving alongside my house, then disappeared into the woods. The last wild mountain lion (Puma concolor) known to live in Pennsylvania was killed in 1871. Recently, on our Arizona Hummingbird and Bat Photo Shoot, I found a deer that had been hit by a car and had moved off to die beside a stream just 200 yards upstream from our lodge. Now, if there were any escapes, and if any of these bred with a possible minuscule number of eastern pumas, a relic native population, wouldn't the gene pool be corrupted? We do not currently know the effects of disease turkey populations. Hunters will be requested to provide information on where, when and what species of migratory birds were taken, in addition to the band number. There have been no "confirmed" reports of mountain lions, AKA Puma concolor, in Pennsylvania since the late 1800s. A sample permission slip is available on page 4 of the 2022-23 Hunting and Trapping Digest. Click here for more information. How do I deal with shaving weight for carrying my gear? I believe them. Here it is: I still couldn't get the big head/little neck, and the body is a bit stouter/shorter, but a striding cat might be stretched out a bit. So it happens, and who knows if it is existing in wild pumas in the East. Thousands of deer scamper onto American streets each year, colliding with startled drivers and causing roughly 200 deaths. Frankly, I was afraid to call it in, as I feared someone would come and shoot the animal. No wild cougars have been found in Pennsylvania since their extirpation in 1871. Many people feed wildlife to experience a closer encounter with wild animals, help animals survive in the winter or to increase the number of game animals. Time is of the essence when it comes to reporting the location of a wild animal, so it's best to call, as opposed to report via email or social media. In Pennsylvania, Sunday hunting has been permitted for a long time for foxes, coyotes and crows during open seasons. Mountain lions, which continue to be reported across Pennsylvania throughout the year, are officially extinct east of the Mississippi River and north of Florida, according to the U.S. And a quiet, snowy covert makes a grouse flush all-the-more dramatic. Flying over the area, I've looked down and commented upon the amount of habitat that would be available for a puma, if only they existed. Isnt that what happened to beaver and river otter in Pennsylvania? It is illegal to take or possess wildlife from the wild. Click here for ways to be ELK SMART. Cougars in Pennsylvania may still be a pipe dream in 2023, but who knows? To be fair, I've also spoken with people who, at first, thought they'd seen a puma only to find, to their embarassment, that they were looking at a house cat! Click here for full harvest reporting details. If the tag were there, this critical data would be lost as the heads would be unidentifiable. If its further back, it could be a far larger specimen and could conceivably weigh twice that. Of the deer harvested in the 2020-21 hunting seasons approximately 174,780 were antlered and 260,400 were antlerless deer. Thank you for your interest in Pennsylvania wildlife. He saw a big cat. Support increased financial assistance for wildlife and agricultural agencies to combat CWD. The Game Commission believes Pennsylvania's last known wild eastern mountain lion died in 1874 in Berks County. We have a google map of unconfirmed public reports, pictures, videos, and historical. The Pennsylvania Game Commissions website, mobile app and Hunting and Trapping Digest are all great resources when looking for information related to current hunting and trapping seasons and beg limits. Road-killed deer should be reported directly to the Pennsylvania Game Commission region office that serves the county where the animal is located. That does not mean that the agency does not care and that we will not follow up with the information provided. Remember, this one was photographed in Arizona in good puma country, although this was the first one I've recorded there. When it comes to turkey hunting, Pennsylvania is unique, and for good reason. However, the loss of nesting brood cover for turkeys and their young may cause turkeys to be more vulnerable to predation during nesting season. I've never seen or heard of a verified black puma anywhere, whether wild or captive, so I'd be inclined to dismiss reports of truly black big cats as misidentifications, even when a group of guys all see the same thing. Store clean grills and smokers in a secure area that keeps bears out. Specific information is available by emailing pgccomments@pa.gov or contacting the Game Commission office that serves your county. Second, antlerless allocations are set at the WMU to harvest a targeted number of antlerless deer. The Game Commission primarily burns to benefit wildlife and maintain the long-term health of their habitats. Their are two web sites I know of that dealt with eastern pumas, with the one, the Eastern Puma Research Network, concentrating on sightings in the east. Interestingly, the US Fish and Wildllife Service has declared the Eastern Puma extinct, except for the Florida population known as the Florida panther. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is an independent state agency and receives no General Fund money from the state's annual budget. Why cant waterfowl be hunted on Sundays? In an effort to expand hunting opportunities, in 2021, Sunday hunting is only open on the following dates for the following species. This is not a Pennsylvania puma! Michelle LaRue, executive director of the Cougar Network and a research ecologist at the University of Minnesota, will discuss the eastern expansion of cougars from their core range in the western U.S. at 7 p.m. in Moravian College's Haupert Union Building, Bethlehem. Let's say the facts indicate that there have been a lot of 'pet' pumas, and many of these escaped. On the second night, a mountain lion passed by, apparently drawn by the smell but put off by the stench, as the cat did not visit the kill. A high hen-to-gobbler ratio is also not a problem for turkey populations. The Pennsylvania Game Commissions Operation Game Thief program serves to protect wild birds and wild mammals and encourages those who have information related to wildlife crimes to report details as soon as possible. Feeding also promotes the spread of infectious diseases by having them unnaturally congregate into small areas. The virus is species-specific and poses no known threat to people or other animals. Who should I call with a wildlife-related question in my local area? More Questions about Pumas in Pennsylvania. Trapping provides relief from property damage for example from livestock predation or agricultural crops. The stride was around 21 inches, and they ambled along at a leisurely pace. I've spoken to PGC personnel, two being friends, and neither believe there are pumas in Pa. One cited how a bobcat's tail can be much longer than you expect, although I've never seen a bobcat tail longer than, at most, twice the size of the tails illustrated above of the bobcat. 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