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Cougar Tracks in Kaaterskill Clove

Discussions about all wildlife, trees, plants, flowers, and geology
Eastern Puma
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Dec 31, 2010 4:51 pm

Re: Cougar Tracks in Kaaterskill Clove

Unread post by Eastern Puma »

In order to get a better idea of the identity of this animal, we need to see photos of other tracks. Do you have them, Dave?

Helen McGinnis
Cougar Rewilding Foundation
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dave
Posts: 712
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:14 pm
Location: Acra New York

Re: Cougar Tracks in Kaaterskill Clove

Unread post by dave »

Helen

I will have to talk with another person here who is a biologist who is handling the issue. I know that he has worked with a slew of people. They spent around a 100 hours of field work, and countless hours outside the field.
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mike
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:20 pm
Location: Ravena, NY

Re: Cougar Tracks in Kaaterskill Clove

Unread post by mike »

I have been working on this for a month, and I have logged in a ridiculous number of hours. About 100 people have inquired, and most of them have the same questions and concerns. Most the questions were addressed early on. We did a lot of field work to cover all those bases prior to posting this thread.

The real time to address this would have been Dec 5th. This is when the prints were still viable, and the other evidence still existed. A number of people did go down there and examined the evidence and came to the same conclusion we did.

The first image is the best image we have. But, the same question about the image keeps coming up. The rear pad appears to be 'A' shaped instead of 'M' shaped. It was actually 'M' shaped. We carefully examined the rear pad. The image is a hind print, and not the larger front print. We could not get an exceptional front print. One of the problems with the print is that it was in course sand, and the sand was starting to dry on the peaks, which made the image a little confusing.

A legitimate question did come up. Some people wanted to rule out an exceptionally large Bobcat. We had the same concerns. While this was an extreme long shot, we took exceptional measure to rule it out. This took close to two weeks to do. I think we can rule out a Bobcat.

Helen, I am aware that you question our findings. If you have some credible reasons, please contact me. There are some groups whose primary motivation is to disprove or prove that it is a cougar. We have intentionally withheld certain evidence to handle people/groups who rather manipulate the evidence to fit their predetermined conclusion. I don't know anything about you or your group, and I have no preconceived notion about you. If you have some credible information, please contact me by Email.
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