Mountain Lion Growls, Shrieks Heard in North New Jersey
I received the following email this morning in reference to sounds heard by a reader and their family recently. If there are other readers in the area or that can help identify the noises, please comment:Mountain Lion heard in Flemington, NJ on August 14th 2010
Around 4:30 am on August 14th 2010, the deafening sounds of a growling animal woke up our entire family.
It was loud enough to be heard through closed windows, air conditioners and the noisy circulating pump of our pool.
Each growl started out as a rasping sound that rose into a shrieking scream and then ended abruptly in silence. The growling went on and on, one growl right after the other for over five minutes.
Our three terriers and one Chihuahua, who have a huge barking problem, froze in silence and came cowering over to us when it ended.
My children went on Youtube and looked up scary sounds, they came up with a video clip of a screaming mountain lion. It was exactly what we heard and sent chills up our spine. It was called “female mountain lion scream”.
Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKw4OFAu1WM&feature=fvw
We have a three acre property in the Rolling Hills area, it is heavily wooded and there is a nearby stream on Cherryville Hollow Road. All the properties in our development have deer that roam around all day and sleep under the trees in our yards. One property is 32 acres of woods and until they built a house, was a favorite spot for deer hunters.
Train tracks through the woods lead into our area and intersects with many different streams. I’ve been told that there have been cougar sightings in Washington, which is north of Flemington, by a previous resident. We have had bear sightings in our neighborhood. I think the presence of bears increases the likelihood of lions also being able to enter the area.
We made the report to the police around 5 am, they said they would send an officer to patrol the area.
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The following is a news report of a sighting in March 2010 in Monmouth County, NJ:
NJ.com - Police and wildlife officials are searching wooded areas and neighborhoods along the Manalapan and Marlboro after two people reportedly spotted a cougar prowling along a roadway early this morning, authorities said.
Shortly before 7:30 a.m., a man was driving on Robertsville Road in Manalapan when he saw what he described as a mountain lion following a deer across the roadway, according to Manlapan Police Captain Chris Marsala. Officers from both the Manalapan and Marlboro responded to the location, but did not find the animal.
A short time later Anthony Lena, a Marlboro Animal Control Officer, claimed he saw a "large cat with a long tail" walking along a creek bed near Robertsville Road, Marsala said. Manalapan officers returned to the scene along with officials from the state Division of Fish and Game and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but the second search also turned up no sign of the animal.
A helicopter was dispatched to aid in the search sometime today, said Marsala.
Officers did find "feline tracks" in a muddy creek bed bear Robertsville Road, according to Marsala, and a wildlife biologist was analyzing photos of the tracks today.
Wildife experts believe that except for a small collection of the large cats in Florida, cougars — also known as mountain lions, pumas or panthers — are extinct on the East Coast, and that most reported sightings are simply a case of mistaken identity.
But in 2007, state authorities said they received at least 70 calls from residents claiming they spotted one of the sharp-toothed felines.
Mountain Lion Growls, Shrieks Heard in North New Jersey
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posted by Lon Strickler at 12:13 PM
3 Comments:
Big cats roamed over much of North America in historical times (that is, 100-200 years ago). We still have them in the West and I've even seen one crossing I-5 in northern Washington State. Yes, generally they avoid people (just like bears), but they occasionally appear in populated areas for a host of reasons.
That North America's big cats east of the Rockies might not have been completely killed off and survive in local forest pockets doesn't seem all that farfetched compared to cat claims from Britain where big cats have been extinct since before the Roman occupation.
There have been reports of Big Cats in this area since around the late 70's. Some years ago my boss whitnessed a 'female lion' cross Tempe Wick Rd in front of his car in Mendham, NJ. Despite preconceptions, this part of the state is fairly 'rugged', with hills, cliffs, bluffs, plenty of forest land and yes-- an over abundance of deer. The possibility of these animals living here on "The down-low" without interfering with human habitat like the bears do does not surprise me at all.
Yes, I for one would love to know why anyone should be surprised to know that big cats live in the woods in North America.
In fact its been reported that Jaguars have even made their range extended into southern parts of the USA and as is well known can produce the all black variety of the species known as the black panther. The usual territory for one large cat can be a range of 25km -40km square for a female to twice that for a male. Their life spans have been recorded to be approximately 20 yrs. Therefore it would be nothing out of the ordinary for a healthy population to continue its presence in these areas. The same goes for cougars or pumas which are known to inhabit as far north as northern Canada.
And it may well be that we will see more of these "snuggle up with civilization" events as their natural food sources and habitats dwindle and humans, livestock and pet numbers increase. We're just providing them with an alternative diet source.
See: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Return_of_the_Jaguar.html
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