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Are there mountain lions in the Adirondacks?
Right now the answer is debatable. On this page you can hear some
of the opinions, see lions, hear their sounds, check out their signs,
vote your opinion and tell us about anything lionish you have seen.
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MOUNTAIN LIONS? HEAR FOR YOURSELF
Yes
70%
No
14%
Maybe
16%
Total votes: 582
MAP THE REPORTED SIGHTINGS SINCE 1960
Cougar sigthings as reported to the
Department of Environmental Conservation, 1960-2000
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see the difference between bobcats
and mountain lions in these two films
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1 BODY
2 TRACKS
3 SCAT
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4 SOUND
5 KILL
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5 SIGNS (it's a mountain lion)
Mountain lions are constantly roaming their territories in search of food, water and shelter, often walking more than 10 miles a day. This movement enables them to maintain territories large enough to sustain themselves, and for males it provides an opportunity to mate with the females whose territory overlaps his. As lions roam they leave sign of their presence in the form of tracks, scat and scrapes. Identifying lion sign is a much better indicator of the presence of mountain lions in an area than a sighting of the actual animal. The vast majority of mountain lion sightings from 75 up to 95 percent are cases of mistaken identity.
5 SIGNS (it's a mountain lion) - Body
The mountain lion is tan in color, with black tipped ears and tail. Adults can weigh from 80 to 190 pounds and stand two to three feet high at the shoulders. The length of an adult lion is 6 to 8 feet from the nose to the tip of the tail, and the tail measures one-third of its length. Mountain lion kittens have camouflaging spots and rings around their tails. They can:
- bound up to 40 feet running
- leap 15 feet up a tree
- climb over a 12 foot fence
- walk many miles at 10 mph
- reach speeds of 50 mph in a sprint
5 SIGNS (it's a mountain lion) - Tracks
 Mountain lions like to walk through life. They choose a very easy and deliberate walking pace with the result that their tracks typically appear clean and undisturbed, with the animal's weight showing in an evenly distributed impression. When examining a track, look for the following features: the typical cat heel imprint, which has two lobes on the top (or leading edge) of the heel and three lobes at the base (or bottom) of the heel.
The toes of a cougar track are asymmetrically arranged and appear as elongated ovals or tear drop shaped impressions. The leading toe corresponds to our middle finger, with the little toe (like our little finger) providing the sure clue as to whether it is a right or left foot we are examining.
The cougar's trail will appear as a neat, regular placement of paired or overlapped footprints, in which the left and right hind feet have been placed in or near the corresponding impressions made by the front feet. Note that unless cougars are actually stalking, playing or running away from an enemy, their trail rarely depict variations in gait.
5 SIGNS (it's a mountain lion) - Scat
 Mountain lion poop tends to be segmented with a diameter of an inch or more. It often contains hair and bits of bone which may give it a white coloring. Mountain lions deposit their scat in visible locations such as the middle of trails and dirt roads, along ridgelines, and near kill caches as territorial markings. By advertising and showing their dominance they keep other males away and increase his chance of breeding with a female.
5 SIGNS (it's a mountain lion) - Sound
Despite its size, the mountain lion can’t roar. Like domestic cats, they vocalize low-pitched hisses, growls, and purrs, as well as chirps and whistles. They are well known for their screams although their screams are often misinterpreted to be the calls of other animals.
5 SIGNS (it's a mountain lion) - Kill
Mountain lions eat prey that is familiar and easily available. They hunt alone from dusk to dawn, taking their prey primarily from behind. Their primary prey is deer, but they also feed on wild hogs, raccoons, rabbits, porcupines, and birds. A mountain lion may kill a deer every one to four weeks. They often drag their kill to another area and then cover it with dry leaves, grass or pine needles known as caching to protect it from other animals and to reduce spoilage. A lion often returns to the kill several times to feed, for a period of three days to one week. Hidden kill is another sign you may be in the presence of a mountain lion.
Submitted by wildcenter on Fri, 07/02/2010 - 23:03
Tell us about a lion you might have spotted
I live in Clarence NY and have seen a few of these mountain lions, lynx or bobcat. Well, I am not very experienced in these matters, but the more I research this, the more I believe what I saw is a mountain lion. It was a large cat (40-60 lbs I would guess, long tail reachig the ground and then curling upward. On one occasion the one I saw was stark black, the other occasion it appeard to be a reddish brown, or just plain darker brown. I have photographs of its footprint on my deck. I had found that it knocked the grease trap off of my grill on the porch, ate the grease, stepped in it and left a perfect footprint on the deck stairs.
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Cougar sightings map courtesy of The Adirondack Atlas by Jerry Jenkins & Andy Keal
Thank you to the Mountain Lion Foundation for use of their content.
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