Readers are constantly asking me questions concerning the outdoors. Questions this week involved bobcats, wolves in the Adirondacks
The following questions came from Gabel Hood:
Mr. Figura - Your article on bobcats caught my attention this morning. I have been meaning to contact you about a "cat" I saw on my property in the town of Marcellus in April. I was looking out my picture window into my back lot (about 2 acres) when out of the woods a cat of some sort came walking towards the house. It was about 75' into my lot by the time I realized it was not a dog. It walked slow like a cat but was much to large to be a house cat. I got my binoculars and looked at the cat in the face and it looked just like a bobcat (or mabe a lynx?). What I don't get is that when it turned to walk away it did not have a bobed tail. It had a long tail that was up in the air. Do bobcats have a normal tail when they are young or are they born with a bobbed tail? I would love your thoughts on what I saw.
Answer: Hmm... interesting. Not sure without seeing a picture. Meanwhile, the DEC has a section on their website dedicated to bobcats. Check it out.
This came from Ray Kozloski:
Hi Dave, I have contacted you before regarding things I have observed while out hiking. Last weekend I was hiking in the Adirondacks. On saturday, I was on my way back to camp after Hiking "Giant Mt." I was driving n route 9N heading north toward upper Jay when I saw this animal run out of the woods onto the shoulder, stopped quickly when I drove within 20 yards of it and then dashed back into the woods. The whole observation took 3 seconds. My wife, grandson and I had been to the syracuse zoo on wednesday and the animal I observed looked just like the grey wolf at the zoo but only larger.
Back at camp that night (I was camping in a in a remote section near Wilmington, NY just north of Whiteface Mt), about dusk I heard what sounded like baying wolves. I have heard this many times while hiking and camping in Alaska, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. What I heard sounded just like the wolf calls I have heard many times before. My question is, are there wolves in the Adirondacks? Have sitings and sounds been heard before? It was really exciting to see and hear them. Any verification?
Answer: (I forwarded Ray's story to the state Department of Environmental Conservation). The response I got from DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino follows....
" It seems very likely what this person saw and heard were coyotes. As far as we know, we do not have wolves in NY, and consider them as extirpated from the state.
"Coyotes in NY have been shown to contain a genetic component of red wolf, which they are thought to have picked up during their gradual eastern expansion into Ontario, Canada, and then south into northern NY. Thus the eastern coyote tends to be larger than the western coyote. However, genetically and behaviorally our animals are primarily coyotes, so we continue to call them that. There's a page on the DEC website that discusses coyotes that may be of use:
"Roland Kays, formerly with the NYS Museum, investigated eastern coyotes a while ago. His findings were published in a popular article in the Pennsylvania Game News. That report is available from the NY State Museum's website."
Syracuse.com
The following questions came from Gabel Hood:
Mr. Figura - Your article on bobcats caught my attention this morning. I have been meaning to contact you about a "cat" I saw on my property in the town of Marcellus in April. I was looking out my picture window into my back lot (about 2 acres) when out of the woods a cat of some sort came walking towards the house. It was about 75' into my lot by the time I realized it was not a dog. It walked slow like a cat but was much to large to be a house cat. I got my binoculars and looked at the cat in the face and it looked just like a bobcat (or mabe a lynx?). What I don't get is that when it turned to walk away it did not have a bobed tail. It had a long tail that was up in the air. Do bobcats have a normal tail when they are young or are they born with a bobbed tail? I would love your thoughts on what I saw.
Answer: Hmm... interesting. Not sure without seeing a picture. Meanwhile, the DEC has a section on their website dedicated to bobcats. Check it out.
This came from Ray Kozloski:
Hi Dave, I have contacted you before regarding things I have observed while out hiking. Last weekend I was hiking in the Adirondacks. On saturday, I was on my way back to camp after Hiking "Giant Mt." I was driving n route 9N heading north toward upper Jay when I saw this animal run out of the woods onto the shoulder, stopped quickly when I drove within 20 yards of it and then dashed back into the woods. The whole observation took 3 seconds. My wife, grandson and I had been to the syracuse zoo on wednesday and the animal I observed looked just like the grey wolf at the zoo but only larger.
Back at camp that night (I was camping in a in a remote section near Wilmington, NY just north of Whiteface Mt), about dusk I heard what sounded like baying wolves. I have heard this many times while hiking and camping in Alaska, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. What I heard sounded just like the wolf calls I have heard many times before. My question is, are there wolves in the Adirondacks? Have sitings and sounds been heard before? It was really exciting to see and hear them. Any verification?
Answer: (I forwarded Ray's story to the state Department of Environmental Conservation). The response I got from DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino follows....
" It seems very likely what this person saw and heard were coyotes. As far as we know, we do not have wolves in NY, and consider them as extirpated from the state.
"Coyotes in NY have been shown to contain a genetic component of red wolf, which they are thought to have picked up during their gradual eastern expansion into Ontario, Canada, and then south into northern NY. Thus the eastern coyote tends to be larger than the western coyote. However, genetically and behaviorally our animals are primarily coyotes, so we continue to call them that. There's a page on the DEC website that discusses coyotes that may be of use:
"Roland Kays, formerly with the NYS Museum, investigated eastern coyotes a while ago. His findings were published in a popular article in the Pennsylvania Game News. That report is available from the NY State Museum's website."
Syracuse.com
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