Wildlife Sightings and Identification

A mountain lion (cougar) not in NJ but in Illinois. 
It's a big cat and you would probably know one if you saw it nearby.

One of the most frequent comments and emails I get here is about sighting wildlife and about identifying wildlife. Occasionally, it will be a bird or invertebrate, but more often it is something more exotic - a mammal that lives in NJ or one that, as far as we can confirm, does not live in our state.

With the weather warming and COVID restrictions lifting, I have had a flurry of comments and emails of this type. I try to respond to all of them. I make no claims to expertise. I'm not a biologist, just a longtime volunteer in environmental programs for the state and other groups.

Our post "Is That a Mountain Lion I See Wandering New Jersey?" has gotten a lot of attention and comments from people who maintain that they have seen a mountain lion in New Jersey. We still have no confirmation of any in our borders. Unfortunately, reports such as the two below that came in recently, are almost never accompanied with any photo evidence of the animal, tracks, scat etc. 

I have seen 3 in the 20 years of living in Newfoundland, NJ. Two were in my yard which borders Watershed property and one on route 23 at the Oakridge Rd intersection. They are here!

and

Mountain lions are ambush predators. You don’t just look outside and see them. They are most definitely here in north jersey as I have seen a handful over the course of years.

On the "Otters in New Jersey" someone said, "Yeah I saw like four or five otters one time, in Holland township NJ, in a small stream while I was fishing."  That is certainly possible. But I have also had people send photos of muskrats and others and say it was an otter, fisher or even a beaver. Those animals don't really look the same but they are similar and going in or out of the water quickly might be tough to identify on the run. 

I also got an email with some snow photos that I'll assume were taken either some months ago or perhaps not even in NJ.

The email said"

Just stumbled across your site and thought maybe you can help me. After a snow this year I went for a walk in the words near my home and came across these fresh tracks. Scary looking! Any idea what these could be from? I certainly don’t want to be alone with whatever made them I don’t think! But would really like to know.

Knowing the location and date would be very helpful but it was good that the person included a hand to give a sense of size.

* A follow-up email told me that the tracks were in Sterling Forest right at the border of NY/NJ in January after a big snowfall right around Ringwood Manor in northern NJ. 

Tracks in the snow are notoriously difficult to identify unless they are very fresh. Melting and wind can change track. The writer sounds a bit frightened by the size of these tracks. Maybe they are thinking "bear."

I had several people look at the tracks and they pointed out that a smaller animal can leave big tracks in the snow because of dragging their legs, hopping, running, or even from a tail. Two people said they thought this might be a rabbit, which is probably disappointing to the email writer. Sometimes the front and rear feet will land in almost the same place and make a "large" track (true for rabbits). 

Here are two sets of bear tracks.

These are some very clear tracks showing five toes/claws. Easy to identify.

In this late in the day photo, tracks that are known to be a bear almost appear
to be human prints as the details have become lost.

It would probably surprise many people that New Jersey has a robust black bear population. We estimate there are about 3400 bears in the northwestern part of the State and bear sightings have been officially reported in all 21 counties.

Look at this strange set of tracks.

photo: animaltrackersofnewengland.blogspot.com

This rather artistic-looking set of tracks is identified by another blogger as
the trail of a bobcat dragging a rabbit.

So who left those tracks in the two photos emailed to me? I honestly cannot make a positive identification. Perhaps, a reader will add a thought. And it's entirely possible that someone will think it's a mountain lion, the Jersey Devil, or Bigfoot.