User:Serke

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Serke

Joined 6/11/07

Don't know where this will become a regular habit, but felt it necessary to contribute to the Wikipedia.

First Edit: North American Cougar article stub. I found the former ending paragraph to be rather un-balanced, with a bent towards disregarding the presence of cougars in the eastern states to folklore and the occasional captive specimen released/escaped.

I spent most of the afternoon searching through the Cougar Network's website, online articles (either originally in print in newspapers/magazines or only digital), local interest pages such as the Adirondack Explorer... and even a forum topic about cougar sitings, most of the responses being from NYers.

I admit to this being a bit biased towards NY, because I live there, but there does genuinely seem to be quite a lot of sitings, tracks, etc in the state. The general consensus by the laymen seems to be a distrust of the DEC for covering up or belittling sitings. The DEC and locals attitudes sees to the continued obscurity of the topic in mainstream, while most people living near less populated areas know better.

I hate to be one of those "I heard from someone who heard" types but here goes: My father is a greenhouse supply salesman. He used to be an avid hiker and mountain-climber, and knows his fair share about the Catskills and Adirondacks. He was working for his company in the NW corner of New Jersey in the early 2000s, which mostly involves visiting farmers and selling them products. One year, two of his customers saw cougars, or maybe the same animal. These men have lived and worked in the area their whole lives, and I'd be pretty sure they can tell the difference between a cougar and a bobcat, lynx, or tan dog.