Per Helen Mcginnis, Chris Spatz and Jay Tischendorf of COUGAR REWILDING, Ohio has some of the most lax laws pertaining to residents keeping Carnivores as pets...............While we root for the day when wild Cougars will once again call Ohio home, the animal that was spotted the other day in Salt fork, Ohio was most likely either an escaped pet Cougar or a large house cat

ALLEGED Cougar caught on camera near Salt Fork , OHIO(east central Ohio close to Pennsylvania State border is a State Park )

To: ctspatz@earthlink.net ; Rosatte, Rick (MNR) ; Jay Tischendorf ; Helen McGinnis ; John Laundre

Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 5:01 PM

Subject: Cougar caught on camera near Salt Fork

Based on the size of the animal to the tree and height of grass, the thin body, tail not long enough, tail streaked and dark with no distinct black tip, no black behind long pointy ears, streaked on inside of rear legs, no black muzzle, and finally HBH and HBL of 1:1.8 and 1:4.6, I believe this is a house cat.


Cheers

Stuart
___________________________________________________________________________

BY: RICK STILLION

Local hunter Dale Lyons caught this image of a mountain lion on his field camera in the Salt Fork State Park area in mid-September.

Cambridge resident Dale Lyons looks over a printout showing a mountain lion taken with his field camera in the Salt Fork State Park area a few weeks ago. The cat was also spotted recently near Winterset.

A local hunter recently made a startling discovery when he captured a picture of a mountain lion on a field camera set out to capture the movements of white-tailed deer near Salt Fork State Park.

"I had the camera out prior to the start of deer season and when I went to look at it, I notice something had ran by (the camera) real fast," said Cambridge resident Dale Lyons."But, I couldn't see what it was by looking at it on the camera, so I took it home and viewed it on a large-screen television. That's when I saw what it was ... a mountain lion."

He said the camera also captured images of coyotes and fox in the area near a pear tree.
Lyons said he showed the picture to local Wildlife Officer Roby Williams, who confirmed it was a mountain lion (also known as a cougar or puma)."He said it was probably somebody's pet that got loose," said Lyons.

Officials estimate the cat is approximately 1 1/2 to 2-years-old.Lyons has learned that his picture taken about four weeks ago with a motion-activated, infrared camera on private property outside Salt Fork State Park is not the only time the cat has been seen locally.

"A man was talking to the staff at County Coins when he told them about seeing a large cat near U.S. 22," said Lyons. "He was driving on U.S. 22 when he saw a bunch of turkeys cross the road with what he believed was a dog loping along behind them. But when he stopped and took a closer look, he realized it was a large cat that was following the turkeys."

Lyons said he has not seen the cat since that night."I wish I could see it again," he said. "I have talked to people who ride horses at Salt Fork and they say they have seen cat tracks in the park."The mountain lion encounter was not the first such encounter for the seasoned hunter with an animal not typically seen in the local area.

"It was in the early spring when I was out calling coyotes at night that I encountered three bear cubs in that same area," said Lyons. "I have run into a lot of things at different times."Knowing their mother was in the area, Lyons said he gave the bear cubs their space and immediately left the area, opting for another spot to hunt coyotes.

"That was their location that night," quipped Lyons, a lieutenant with the Guernsey County Sheriff's Office. "I knew mom had to be in the area."said he saw two bear cubs back at the same property a couple weeks later."I have seen a lot of interesting things this year," he said. "Even if I don't do any good deer hunting, I will have the animals that I saw and the one captured on the camera, and that's makes a pretty good year."