At first glance it’s easy to see how folks thought this mysterious cat caught on a trail cam in Western New York was a mountain lion. The New York State Department of Conservation was contacted about the feline in question and headed out to the scene to investigate.
NYS DEC staff worked with the property owner and staged a cutout of an average sized mountain lion in the same location. As you can see below, mystery cat was way too small to be a mountain lion, thusly debunking the original claims. Clever solution, well played NYS DEC:
“A case of mistaken Identity…there has been a recent flurry of Facebook activity and calls to our Wildlife office suggesting there was a photo of a mountain lion captured on a trail cam in Western NY. Our ECOs and wildlife staff worked with the homeowner to put an average-sized cutout of a mountain lion in the same location within the trail cam view. As you can see, the size difference is unmistakable. Case solved.”
