I raised my binoculars, expecting to get a view of a mule deer. I often spotted them in this little valley, and when I saw the tan form, I knew what it was. Or thought I knew. Because as I focused on the animal, something seemed off. And then it moved. It had a long tail.
A mountain lion. While the encounter only lasted seconds – the big cat quickly bounded away – it remains one of my favorite wildlife sightings.
I saw this lion in the canyon country of southwestern Idaho. It may have been a spectacular sight, but no one questioned me. Mountain lions are fairly common, if seldom seen, in Idaho.
On the other side of the country, mountain lion sightings evoke a fiery passion. Many fervently believe mountain lions stalk much of the eastern United States, including the most densely populated state, New Jersey.
Idaho’s Owyhee County, where I saw my first mountain lion, is larger than the entire state of New Jersey. And it is home to fewer than 13,000 people. There’s plenty of space for a mountain lion to hide. In New Jersey, with 9.25 million people? Much less so.
Still, sightings persist. Are there mountain lions in New Jersey? Is it even a remote possibility?
The Eastern Lion
I’ve followed the arguments over eastern mountain lions for decades. I grew up in the woods of Pennsylvania and know the strong opinions this topic generates. In fact, the first outdoor story I was ever paid to write – for Pennsylvania Afield (now Pennsylvania Outdoor News) in 1991 – was about mountain lion rumors in Pennsylvania.
I found it a fascinating subject. You could hear some wild stories sitting around small-town bars. The state game agency is unloading truckloads of mountain lions at night. Not only are there mountain lions, but also black panthers. That sort of thing.
But not all lion incidents could be so easily dismissed, told by serious hunters, naturalists and loggers. These were people who spent a lot of time in the woods and were not prone to Bigfoot-style tall tales.
Eric Olsen, director of conservation programs for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, has heard the stories, too. “I’ve talked to more people who believe they’ve seen mountain lions then I can count,” says Olsen. “It does make you think. But I’m a skeptic that there are mountain lions here in New Jersey.”
Mountain lions once ranged across much of the United States, but they were eradicated from most parts of the East by the early 1800s. The population in Florida has managed to hang on. Elsewhere, actual evidence – photographs, camera trap footage, verifiable signs – remains slim.
But there are actual instances that fuel hope. In 2011, a lion was confirmed to be in Connecticut. It had roamed from South Dakota through the Midwest and East. (The full story is masterfully told in Will Stolzenburg’s book, Heart of a Lion). With many western populations of mountain lions thriving, individuals could disperse and find abundant white-tailed deer in the East. But could they survive and thrive there?
The Connecticut lion could not: it was killed by a car strike.
“There are places in New Jersey big enough to sustain a mountain lion or two,” says Olsen. “But there are still people who reside in those landscapes. There are still roads. I would love to think that New Jersey could sustain mountain lions. But the hard evidence has not been found.”
He notes that biologists have utilized scat-sniffing dogs to find evidence of bobcats (more on this species later). The Nature Conservancy and other organizations have wildlife cameras at road-stream crossings, at preserves and in other areas used by wildlife. And still: no evidence.
I’m a skeptic too, in no small part because of my experience with mountain lions in the western United States. They are certainly elusive and difficult to spot. Even where they’re common, you rarely if ever catch a glimpse of one. They often roam in some of the largest wildernesses and national forests in the continental United States.
While sightings may not be common, people do see them, photograph them, find easily verifiable kills and tracks and scat. Animals get killed on the road. There’s never any doubt. They’re here.
So what exactly is going on with mountain lion sightings in the eastern U.S.?
A Case of Mistaken Identity?
I pose the question to my friend and former Nature Conservancy forester Mike Eckley. Eckley has spent years on forest projects in Penn’s Woods, including the area in the central part of the state known as the “Pennsylvania Wilds.” He tells me he’s never seen any evidence, either, but has heard many stories from reliable sources.
“A key thing to remember is that there are a lot of people who are into exotic, wild pets,” says Eckley, now a lecturer in forestry at Penn State-Dubois. “Sometimes these animals can escape or be intentionally released. A lot of sightings are actually near urban areas. People might see a mountain lion that’s a released pet, and then these animals tend to quickly perish.”
It brings back a memory from my Pennsylvania youth, when my grandparents took me to visit a friend who kept a pet mountain lion in their backyard. I recall the fence made me a little nervous, and few would have been surprised if that cat escaped. Indeed, a lot of really weird animal sightings around the globe are due to animals escaped or released from private zoos and game farms.
But perhaps a more common reason for all the mountain lions is simple misidentification. Bobcat populations have increased significantly, a huge conservation success. In New Jersey, bobcats were extirpated but reintroduced in the 1970s. “There are now an estimated 350 bobcats in New Jersey,” says Olsen. “They’ve learned to live within human-inhabited landscapes.”
They are also shy and elusive, but people do encounter them. And it’s not unusual for people to mistake them for mountain lions. “If you’re seeing a bobcat for the first time, they’re larger than you think,” Olsen says. “I can understand how you could think it was a mountain lion.”
Eckley agrees. “I think misidentification is the most common explanation,” he says. “A lot of times, whether in an actual sighting or a camera trap, there’s no frame of reference. It looks like a really big cat.”
If you’re wondering, there are a couple of things that can help. First, refer to my previous field guide to commonly misidentified wildlife. Namely, this rule: “If in doubt, it’s probably the least exciting option.” You simply have to rule out bobcat before you can ID a cat as a cougar.
There’s one really simple distinguishing characteristic: the tail. The bobcat, as its name implies, has a bobbed tail, quite short and stubby. The mountain lion has an unmistakably long tail.
Assessments like this invariably make some people angry. Both Olsen and Eckley note they have not ruled out the possibility of mountain lions. They just want to see hard evidence.
Could Lions Return to the East?
To me, the most compelling question is not “Do mountain lions exist in New Jersey?” It’s: “Could they?”
I recently fished for brook trout in New Jersey’s portion of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. As I walked along beautiful mountain streams, I saw tracks of black bear and whitetail, and caught beautiful native trout. At times, it felt difficult to believe I was so close to millions of people.
Olsen notes that New Jersey is projected to be the first state in the nation to reach functional buildout, meaning nearly all land has been developed or conserved. But he notes that conservation has also been remarkably successful in such a densely populated state. New Jersey’s Green Acres program and many non-profit organizations, towns and counties have played important roles in preserving land.
TNC has protected more than 60,000 acres in New Jersey, no small task in a small, highly populated state with high property values. Lately, establishing corridors between conserved lands has taken on new importance with species needing space to move amidst dense roadways and challenging climate conditions. One such effort is protecting a 96,000-acre corridor for bobcats to move, known as “Bobcat Alley.”
“We’re protecting forests, fields and farmlands, preserving the best of what’s left for nature so species have the ability to thrive,” says Olsen. “And then we take it the next step: how can we connect protected areas in other states in the Appalachians?”
TNC’s work in the Appalachians focuses heavily on this connectivity. That gives species room to adapt and roam.
Mountain lions are famous roamers. They’re territorial, so young animals often strike out in search of new territory. If they came east, they’d need these connected lands. And they’d need prey. “The prey base is there,” says Olsen. “Our ecosystem is out of balance with too many deer. The forests are suffering as a result. The mountain lions would have plenty to eat.”
New Jersey's Bobcat Alley
Once nearly extinct in New Jersey, bobcats are trying to make a comeback. To survive, they need room to roam.
As such, the eastern mountain lion must be considered not a creature of the past or of myth, but a creature of hope.
“I bring a lot of skepticism to the topic, but I also do have hope,” says Olsen. “I hope that we will have done a good enough job of protecting and connecting habitat that there could be a time when lions arrive on their own – and survive and thrive here.”
For now, bobcats remain New Jersey’s only native wild feline, and even they can lose as much as 25 percent of their annual population to automobiles. Protecting and connecting strategic land in New Jersey and the Appalachian states is the best way to ensure they continue to have a home – and maybe even to give big cats with longer tails a chance to survive in the East.
I have a video sent by a friend a few years ago who works at Fort Dix in Bordentown, NJ. Right in the middle of the Pinelands. Their night vision camera captured a big lion on a Jersey barrier . It’s really amazing. When it gets up to jump down, you can see it is almost the legth of the barrier. Very clearly a mountain lion.
Matt Miller – please contact me if you want me to send you the video.
According to Henry Charlton Beck’s book there were lions.
“Red Lion story: Red Lion from the book:
Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey
By Henry Charlton Beck
Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ
c. 1936 by E.P. Dutton; c. 1961 by Rutgers
Chapter XXXIII, Pages 251-254
RED LION: This is the story of Red Lion.
You will find it by referring to a map of New Jersey and tracing the southernmost line of Burlington County. It is northwest of Medford Lakes and southeast of Pemberton. For some reason or other the letters of the town’s name are second only to Medford and as large as Four Mile, and even Medford Lakes.
Red Lion has always been known as a “large settlement,” but as a matter of fact there are very few houses. When you are in “the center of town” no more than eight houses can be seen.
The most prominent of all the town’s buildings is one of three stories, red brick and of considerable size. This, if you please, is the Red Lion Hotel, a hostelry which, they say, could tell a story all its own. The hotel took its name from the town and the town got its name—well, here’s one story we heard:
The original settlers were people by the name of Parks. No one seems to know from where they came nor exactly when. It was long before the present inhabitants can remember, but the story of how the town was named has been handed down from the Parks, father to son, for several generations.
About half a mile from the settlement is what is know as the Bear Swamp. (Editor’s Comment: Bear Swamp is a part of the current Red Lion Preserve, 827 acres dedicated to passive recreation and located on Hawkin Road, just south of Red Lion Circle. Oversight of the preserve is in the hands of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust – JL) Bear were plentiful once through this locality and were hunted, in season and out of season, by earlier inhabitants. This town, before it had any definite name, was supposed to be a base for such hunters. They used the settlement at the crossroads as a sort of headquarters for their expeditions.
Here at the intersection of the winding trails that lead to Tabernacle, Beaverville, Vincentown, Friendship and Medford, the hunters gathered in those long-ago days to take vengeance on the wild animals that were nightly attacking their cattle. But on this occasion the huntsmen failed to find even a bear. However, after the “posse” departed, the same conditions prevailed and Old Man Parks resolved to do a little hunting by himself.
He thought he was going out in search of a bear. Actually he was to meet a lion and get a name for his home town. He came upon it one day, a mountain lion, crouched at the edge of a cedar swamp.
Parks shot at the lion and wounded it. Then his gun failed. He was compelled to grapple with the animal hand-to-hand. He clubbed at its head and it clawed at him. Blood flowed freely. The yellow beast, covered with gore, seemed to turn red, as it expired.
Parks finally brought his kill to town and the town became Red Lion.
Following erection of the hotel in the good old days when a license for selling strong liquors, fork lightning compared to what the ultra-moderns call laughing soup, could be had for the asking, if one was deemed necessary, the inn hung out a sign with the picture of a brilliant carmine lion above its name, “The Red Lion Hotel.”” https://www.southamptonnj.org/history/vignettes/red_lion_story.php
The car strike of a Mountain Lion in Milford, CT in 2011 verified there are Mountain Lions in the area. Clearly there aren’t many though given the lack of official sightings and lack of roadkill, which they appear to be prone to. To make our country more hospitable to all kinds of wild animals, we need to create land for them to roam and not force them to dash between islands dotting a manicured landscape.
I like the point in the article about connecting habitat to protect the growing number of Bobcats that are well-documented in the state and all of the other fauna that makes their home in the Garden State. Check out TNC’s Bobcat Alley initiative and write to your state representative about supporting the Wildlife Corridor act (3618 in NJ) to make sure the next wild animal you see is alive in the woods and not dead on the road!
I live in northeast Florida near Jacksonville. When my mom was growing up outside Gainesville, FL it was common to hear the scream of the panther ( Florida panther is the local name for cougar or mountain lion). Mom was born in 1943 and there was less than 2 million people in the entire state today it’s ~25 million and growing.
Needless to say habitat destruction caused the Florida Panther to dwindle is numbers to the point they were on the verge of disappearing from the state. The population was small and very generic problems due to inbreeding
The official story is the FL panther is confined to SW Florida.. ( but there are a few people even biologists who think the panther is still present in North Florida). To prevent the disappearance, Texas cougars were introduced, to strengthen the Florida panthers gene pool.
With that being said back in 1991 my ecology professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville said she thought there were panthers in North Florida ( and always have been). Many of her colleagues thought she was a bit nuts. About a week after that lecture a panther was killed by a car on i-95 about 30 miles south of Jacksonville.
Florida a does have a lot more people than years ago but they are concentrated in coastal areas of south Florida, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. There are surprisingly large areas of wilderness.
It’s planned to have conservation areas, parks. State forests , national forests, large military bases and private open lands like ranches and tree farms liked in wild life corridors . Look at a map of Florida and it’s easy to see where these corridors are widing between Disney world and cities with their subdivisions.. But development still threatens and causes choke points for free flor of fauna( for example dangerous road crossings on roads getting every more busy each day. I hope this state will stop growing at an explosive rate so sprawl doesn’t continue
It’s plausible that panthers have moved along those corridors to northern Florida .
I’ve lived in Beemerville NJ on and off all my life. My wife and I lived in the woods just off the App. Trail for 11 years. Have seen 3 bobcat, 1 link, 1 moose, too many bear, no cougars, but one cougar bed in spring snow with cat scat with rabbit hair. One friend saw a “long trailed” big brown cat cross Rte 23 at nite by lake marcia. Another buddy saw a ML behind the house outside of the hurricane fence at supper. All this, with ML, happened 4 years ago. Nothing recently. Our place is located on a “green sea.”
I have pictures of mountain lion tracks in the snow at Buttermilk falls in Plymouth Ct. I took them back in 2018. Don’t know if it was a transient or living in the area. The snow was crusty so it was definitely big enough to break through and leave diffinitive tracks.
I saw a mountain lion that had been hit by a car in Kings Highway in Swedesboro about a year ago. I was stopped in traffic and got a good look at it’s face. I couldn’t photograph it then but returned about 3 hours later to document and report it, but it was gone. It was large and looked exactly like the first trail cam photo.
About 2 months ago I was driving into Bennington VT, I normally will do this drive on 7A as it is slower and more rural, but that day I was running late to an appointment so I took the faster route 7, as I approached the light at the exit ramp I spotted a Bobcat in full stride sprinting across the road, I was surprised as this is quite a populated area with plenty of stores and residential occupancy, but that stub on his rear made it unmistakable. As I pulled up to the stoplight I noticed in the car that came to a stop next to me the couple in the front were very excitedly doing high fives, and when they noticed the huge smile in my face the asked if I had seen the beautiful Bob.
I have seen photos of mountain lions, a mother and 2 cubs sunny themselves on a large rock, outside of Roscoe, NY. There was a house in the background. Plenty of deer.
Both sets of my grandparents had summer homes in Highland Lakes. Around 1984, my maternal grandparents were hosting the entire family for a 4th of July BBQ. Mid-afternoon, I looked up toward the ridge behind the property and there was an enormous cat, long tail walking very slowly just below the ridgeline. When I pointed it out to my father, all hell broke loose in the ensuring moments with two dozen relatives all seeing the cat and everyone rushing to get inside. The cat was in sight for less than a minute and then walked through the neighbor’s property and out of sight. There was no question that it was a mountain lion. Was it a transient cat or a resident? Who knows. But it was unmistakable and was seen by the entirety of my relatives who were outside at the time.
I personally seen a dead mt lion going on 80 through the Delaware water gap
I was stuck in traffic I got a good look at it no Bob cat and this was jersey side before the river going into pa
Might sound silly but a coyote in NH looks similar to a mountain lion in the right light from a distance. Ears and tail can make you confuse the two.
I grew up in the foothills of the appalachians. Penn State has the Nittany Lion as a mascot for a reason. People will claim that nittany lion’s have been extinct since the late 1800s, but they’re wrong. A bunch of us kids used to cross a large alfalfa field on my neighbor’s farm to get to a boulder cave we liked to play around in the 60s. We would cross towards the bottom where a creek ran through to avoid the wineberry jaggers but we could clearly see the top hill of the field. We lost track of time one afternoon, so we were hurrying back late in the day a little before dark. We heard a scream and looked up to see several deer racing down the hill and a large mountain lion stalking behind them. If you’ve ever seen a bobcat, you know that nobody would mistake a bobcat for a mountain lion unless they were deaf and blind. A bobcat is much smaller and stockier, a darker tan and heavily spotted with a short, stubby tail and pointy ears. This critter was a solid light golden beige, close to 6′ long and sleek, with a long tail and stubby, round ears. It was easily twice the size of a bobcat. The scream was basically that- a high pitched scream- like what a housecat does when you step on its tail. Bobcats growl- a deep, throaty growl, more like a bear than a cat. When it does scream, it sounds kind of like a bark and a scream mixed. We’ve always had Bobcats around, much fewer now, of course. It comes with the territory if you live in mountain forests. They’ll kill the chickens and goats- even an occasional dog. I’ve never seen them chase a herd of deer, but I guess fawns would be fair game. The “experts” will roll their eyes and trot out the old “Mountain lions have been gone for 150 years, blah, blah, blah.” But they don’t live with them. They’ve seen the trail cams and they’ll sputter about how it’s probably just an unusually large bobcat, or a lynx, or it might still have its summer coat. We don’t get lynx this far south, but okay- it could have drifted out of its territory or something looking for food- it happens. That still can’t explain the size, or the long tail or short round ears. I expect more trail cam videos to come out because they’re dirt cheap now and maybe that will answer the question.