what is this on my game-cam?

[wyoDreamer]

Quote:
Thanks for the series of photos put together!

Folks - look at the pictures:
1 & 2 - if you ignore the tail and they look like the exact same animal. Skinny legs, white underbelly all the way up to the jaw, white of the inside of the ear, sleak body (photo #2 looks well fed!

)

1 & 3 - look at the heaviness of the body and thickness of the legs, the cougar is also alot less dramatic in coloring, the belly is lighter in color but not a distinct line

Woodmort has shown us pictures of a fox without a big bushy tail .. see post #185, page 19 on my computer

Editted to correct Woodmorts posting #

 

[chickbea]

Mercy! I've been lurking on this thread to see what all the ruckus is about! Calm down, boys!! It's OK to have different opinions!

My 2 cents is that it is a housecat. Housecats come in all sizes, and many are quite muscular.

Some questions:
Apparently it is legal in some parts of the country to hunt catamounts - and using dogs? I didn't know that...

Since the pic is taken in a known location where you can measure the distance from cam to subject, I would think that someone would be able to get a somewhat accurate idea of how big the animal actually was. One of the prior posts had a comment about a group of people seeing a bear and the wildly varying estimates of size that came from the one sighting. I think this is very common.

I remember back in college I was hiking with a bunch of friends, and we saw a beaver gliding across a pond. They absolutely freaked out and ran for their lives, shrieking that there was a bear in the water. I pointed out that it was a beaver, not a bear, but some of them continued to think it was a bear and probably still think that to this day. Not all of these people were city folks, either!

Do you have a friend who is a computer expert? Often trail cam pics can be enhanced quite significantly. I had a mystery pic once, and when we enhanced it, it turned out to be my dog, just caught in a weird light and in a bizzarre pose. That was embarrassing!

My point is, it's often difficult to tell for sure.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Reread that again--I said wildlife biologist are keeping it under wraps, not the game wardens. The assumption is that game warden is just not told what is out there for the simply reason he doesn't need to know. Someplace up the line there is someone that is concerned that if the general public is informed about these things they'll take eradicating it into their own hands so they keep everyone out of the loop. That's assuming that it is true. Quite possibly the warden is being told the same things you are about evidence and is just as much in the dark as you are. If he's being condescending to you, it may just be that he's tired of having to deny the same evidence time after time when, to his knowledge, it isn't true. I know for a fact that that has happened to some of the DEC people I've talked to--especially on the cougar thing in NYS. I also think there is quite a bit of "conspiracy theory" going on here which isn't necessarily the case. Most of the time the secret is kept to protect the animals--this was the case with the Canadian Lynx that were released into the Adirondacks. That could well be the case with the cougars in Quabbin--if it becomes general knowledge then someone is going to try to be a "hero" and kill it. (Come on-- I hope you understand what I mean when I'm referring to those "knuckleheads" that think that if there is something out there they should try to kill it. We had one that shot a moose here a few years back that, unfortunately, had been tracked by every newspaper in the state just so he could get his name in the papers.)

And this is the reason why I'm having a hard time with your posts. I understand inferences are lost while typing, and i'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, but why is it that any "Average Joe" who sees something that biologists "keep under wraps" is immediately compared to someone who sees Bigfoot? I don't need a cryptozoologist, I have coyotes in my back yard, I have seen cougars at the Quabbin, this does not make me an idiot or a lunatic just because the powers that be don't admit that these animals are here. I just got a digital camera and on my next fishing trip, I'm taking it with me. If i can post pics, will that make me less crazy?

You misunderstand me, I was trying to make an analogy between thinking something is out there and actually proving it exists. As far as thinking people that have seen Sasquatch and UFO's are crazy, that isn't the case for most "average Joes". I'm sure perfectly rational, sane people have seen something but have just misidentified it and/or have used Sasquatch or UFO or aliens to explain it. The problem is that when the thing is scientifically tracked down there is no evidence that what the person saw actually exists.

And you have contradicted yourself, first you say that the game wardens are keeping things under wraps so as not to inspire the local knuckleheads (like me?) out of the woods, and here you are saying they aren't party to the information. My game warden is fully aware, with photographs and other evidence, and yet he keeps smiling at me and telling me I'm imagining things. Now granted, I'm ticked because this man is getting on my last nerve, and I apologize if I'm reading you the wrong way, but your attitude in your post is remarkably similar to his, which is why I may be over reacting. If so, again I apologize, but comparing people who LIVE in the area and are there all of the time to see what actually lives there, on multiple occassions "Average Joes" like they don't know anything, is belittling to the people who are in the best place to really KNOW what's living there.

As I've said before I'd love to believe there are resident mt. lions in the Eastern US north of FL and I am not alone. There are a lot of people out there that are attempting to track down evidence they exist. The problem is when the "evidence" is examined it turns out that the lion track was been made by a dog or coyote; the sighted lion turns out to have been a yellow lab or big house cat; the hair came from another species; or , in those few cases where there is an actual cougar, that it came from elsewhere.

Finally, please don't take this personally. I have spent a lot of time tracking down wild turkey, mt. lion, bear, coyote, wild hog and moose stories (even one elk). Some eventually turned out to be true--with the exception of the mt. lion and elk. Most of the time it turns out to be a fourth or fifth-hand story that, once one gets to the source, he/she isn't that sure of what they saw anyway. As a result, I am very skeptical especially when I don't personally know my source and, as a result, tend to want more than "I saw it" evidence. It is not some much that I doubt you it is just that I'm applying the scientific principle that if one person can perform an experiment, then others should also be able to under the same set of circumstances. I hope you are right and your sightings can be verified by others. Until that happens I have to be skeptical--sorry but I don't mean to offend or belittle you in so doing this.

BTW I tried to find other posts on the Internet about cougars in Quabbin and came across one case. The trouble was the writer also claimed to have seen wolves there which, I am sure, were Eastern coyotes so I kind skeptical about him as a source.​

 

[9Catsz]

Late one night on a rural back road in MO while snake hunting, (Hwy K in Madison County) I saw a hyena! Huge animal. Had the low-slung hindquarters and back legs noticeably shorter than the front legs. Huge head and muzzle. It also had a spotted coat like a hyena. I wish I'd had a camera that night. Well, as we all know, it wasn't a hyena. It was a really ugly dog. It trotted up the road in front of me before it decided to veer out of my path. Now if that animal had dashed quickly across the road in front of anyone looking more like something from Africa than a regular old dog, what would they think?

I still don't think the OPs unknown animal pics is a lion, it's barely bigger than the crow and I know how big a crow is, but I'm not sure what it is. I hope we eventually get definitive proof of what it is, however, if she ever gets a good pic of whatever it is, I'll wager that most ppl won't believe it's the same cat-like animal in the original pics.

 

[dretd]

Quote:
Wow, thank you so much for providing this photo of the cougar! Was this one you got on your own game cam?

In looking at the color pattern of the known cougar and it appears more uniform than the one on the OP's game cam where there is more of a difference in contrast between the underside and the upperside. The black color stripe also appears more distinct in the OP's photo and actually more washed out than expected on the known cougar's photo.

I think based on color, to my eye, the OP's photo matches up with the fox better than the cougar. It will be interesting to see what other's opinions are.

 

[Twiggers96]

I spy with my little eye - especially with the comparison shots....a COUGAR/Panther.
I'm from Florida, we have panthers here.

 

[dretd]

Quote:
Hey, I thought you wanted to post pictures and were interested in contributing more than just an opinion. It would be extremely helpful for you to provide photos of your pelts and I just thought that matching the lighting woud be more demonstrative of the identification. If you want to leave it as your opinion, then more power to you. You basically called the folks you work with idiots so I guess I was being a little defensive on their behalf and maybe a little more sassy than I should have been. Typically in scientific communities, you will have many folks offer their opinions and have lively discussions about a topic so I thought since you work with these folks you would be in to that sort of thing. I guess I was wrong and I will wish the best of luck yourself.

 

[Meara]

My best friend is married to a wildlife biologist for GA DNR and lives not far from Milledgeville. I just sent him the link so he can have a "looksy". I'll let y'all know what he has to say!

 

[mrpekinduck]

Guys I don't mean to offend anyone but lets keep BYC a peaceful community and not argue about silly things like this. If you don't agree with someone tha you dont agree no biggy just please don't fight.

 

[dinahmoe]

wow guys,interesting reading from you guys.

all i have gotten lately is more coons.nothing larger than a coon for predators.i really would like it to come back becuase,like you guys,i really want to know.
any suggestions as to what a grey fox would be tempted with or a big cat for that matter(besides chicken).