Mountain Lions
Mountain Lions are a controversial subject in Oklahoma. State wildlife officials acknowledge there are a few here, but not nearly as many as the sightings that are reported by the public. On the flip side, some Oklahomans think there are a lot more big cats here than state wildlife officials care to admit.
No one really knows, but photos on the Internet such as the ones e-mailed to me Tuesday night help spread the suspicion. The photos show a mountain lion on somebody’s patio in Watonga.
I traveled through Watonga a couple of weeks ago, and after seeing these photos, decided the next time I better be packing a sidearm.
The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission last month passed a measure making it legal to shoot a mountain lion if deemed a nuisance or a threat, but Gov. Brad Henry has yet to sign it into law. Judging from these photos, this menacing mountain lion looks threatening enough.
But then I called Micah Holmes at the state Wildlife Department to see if anyone there knew about the Watonga cat and who took the photos. I wanted to interview this guy. Holmes had seen the photos before, and directed me to www.snopes.com/photos/animals/patiomountainlion.asp
Posted there on that Web site devoted to debunking Urban Legends and rumors were the same mountain lion photos. And according to the Web site, those photos have been circulated via numerous e-mails which reported the mountaion lion as being on patios in Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York and South Dakota.
Now add Oklahoma to the list. According to the Web site, the photos actually were taken in 2001 or 2002 in Wyoming.
Just like that photo of the huge alligator gar that was reportedly caught at Broken Bow Lake a couple of years, this was another Internet hoax. Too bad the truth gets in the way of a good story.
- Ed Godfrey
Outdoors Editor
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I saw a Mountain Lion a few years ago that crossed in front of me as I was driving on Benson Park road just east of Tecumseh. It looked about half grown.
A friend of mine also spotted some sort of black panther near the same area. I think these animals are more abundant than is being let on.
– Jonathan