Is That a Mountain Lion I See Wandering New Jersey?

I have received inquiries over the years of writing this blog about sightings in New Jersey of moose, elk, reindeer, and wolves. None of them inhabit our state. But the most common sighting of a species that, according to state wildlife officials, does not exist in NJ is the mountain lion.

This post has been updated multiple times and remains one of the most popular and probably the most commented on posts.

There have been several articles online about "sightings" of a "large cat." One in Camden County near the Winslow Hammonton border by Route 73 was reported to be a mountain lion. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish and Wildlife sometimes receives evidence and investigates and their verdict has always been that these big cats are NOT mountain lions.

New Jersey's largest cat is officially the bobcat, but these reports to animal control officers are saying this is not a bobcat but a mountain lion (AKA cougar or puma). There is a significant difference between a domestic cat, bobcat and mountain lion and they really shouldn't be confused. The evidence so far is just some grainy video and a fuzzy photograph taken with a hunter's game camera.

According to mountainlion.org, "Before European settlement, mountain lions once occurred throughout New Jersey and moved between New Jersey and neighboring states. Ideal habitat would have occurred in the forests, hills, and along the timbered streams, but mountain lions could have persisted anywhere there was ample prey. Direct persecution, conversion of wildlands to agriculture and human development, roads and highways, and other forms of habitat loss all contributed to the decline and ultimate extirpation of mountain lions in New Jersey."

In other words - No Mountain Lions in NJ. And yet, reports keep coming in. There was a report of one in Ewing Township back in 2018 that inspired the original version of this post.  Check the comments on this post below and you'll see that since it was originally posted regular sightings continue to come in. 

We are still waiting for good video footage, physical evidence and confirmation from NJ Fish & Wildlife. For now, the cougar's status in New Jersey is still a few notches below the Jersey Devil.

Bobcat - Photo: Public Domain, via commons.wikimedia.org

Bobcats are known to live in New Jersey and are considered endangered by the NJDEP. A bobcat is considered a medium sized-cat, about two feet tall. Though they are larger than a house cat, they are much smaller than a mountain lion. Adult bobcat females in NJ generally weigh between 18 and 25 lbs. and adult males can weigh as much as 35 lbs.

A camera trap image of a cougar in Saguaro National Park - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, Link

Although cougars somewhat resemble the domestic cat, they are much larger - about the same size as an adult human. Their size and their long, smooth tail are the obvious identifiers.

Mountain lions, which once did live in this area, are believed to have been extirpated long ago. The Eastern cougar or eastern puma (Puma concolor couguar) is the name given to the extirpated cougars that once lived in northeastern North America. They were part of the subspecies of the North American cougar that is considered gone from the east coast by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) evaluation in 2011.

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Press Coverage in NJ of Sightings
pressofatlanticcity.com
nj.com/camden

About Reported Cougar Sightings in the East
wsj.com/articles/eastern-mountain-lions-may-be-extinct-but-locals-still-see-them
nationalgeographic.com/
blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/eastern-mountain-lion-mystery/

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.

And in New Jersey Bobcat News...

“Wildlife on Hidden Camera” by USFWS

This month I saw a few unusual New Jersey animal sighting stories in the news. One was a
"mystery animal" sighting in Ewing Township that was probably a fox that has shed its fur. Another was a news story about a bobcat that entered a house in Washington Township.

Bobcats typically avoid humans, so the incident is unusual. But bobcat sightings and encounters are on the rise in NJ. Later, in another part of the township, a bobcat attacked and injured a dog, and then a half hour later, police received a call that the bobcat was in a nearby barn.

Conservation officers snared the animal because they believed it was showing possible early signs of having rabies and it was removed by the Division of Fish and Wildlife for observation and possible testing.

Native New Jersey bobcats were almost extinct in New Jersey in the 1970s, but thanks to ongoing conservation efforts have been making a slow comeback.

Bobcats roam an average of seven miles a day, so they require lots of land. Car strike deaths is the leading cause of bobcat mortality in the state.

Having connected wild habitat for them is the best situation for them and would decrease their entry into populated areas, but that is a difficult task to accomplish in our densely populated state.

The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey is working to protect "Bobcat Alley," a 32,000-acre corridor of connected and protected habitat in northwestern New Jersey.

Bobcat Alley slideshow

Bobcat infographic via www.nature.org  click link for larger original 

Building Bobcat Alley

proposed bobcat alley - via www.nature.org

Bobcats are New Jersey’s last remaining wild cats. Once nearly extinct in our state, they are still endangered here, but making a comeback. The key to their success is habitat.

The Nature Conservancy is working to protect critical habitat for these beautiful cats in New Jersey. They call it "Bobcat Alley," and it's a place created by connecting preserved land between two great mountain ranges: the Appalachians and the Highlands.

The Bobcat Alley wildlife corridor will provide space for bobcats to hunt, raise young here and flourish.

You can help build Bobcat Alley by donating to The Nature Conservancy.

Stories in the Snow

track in snow, Sussex county, NJ  (Photo by John Parke of NJ Audubon )

I love to take walks and hikes after a snowfall. I am not a snowshoe person, so it is not that I like to tramp through the woods in 10 inches of snow. My favorite time is right after a snowfall of just a few inches when animal tracks become evident. Even in your back or front yard, you suddenly see all the visitors who have walked, hopped and landed around your home.

These stories in the snow are a revelation for many people about all the wildlife nearby, and a great way to get children interested in local wildlife and nature.

Let's say you spot the track shown above. Would you know what animal left it? Was it a local dog or cat? If you were out in the woods, you might think it was more likely a wild animal than a pet.

Most people would not know the difference between a dog or cat track, other than perhaps guessing about it by size. If it is big, you might guess a dog. Of course, if you were outside New Jersey, it could be a big cat, like a mountain lion.

Hold on - are there any lynx, cougars or mountain lions in New Jersey - besides the ones in Turtleback Zoo?

Let us look at the dog versus cat family tracks.

You know that you might find tracks in the snow from either a bobcat or coyote in our state.

The most obvious difference is claw marks. Dogs usually show claw marks in their tracks. Cats (as any owner of one knows) can retract their claws and do so when they walk - but you can find claw marks in cat tracks when the animal is running or pouncing. Tracking really is a detective game.

You will also note the difference in the heel pad. The dog has a more distinctive 3-lobe shape.

Also notice the alignment of the front two toes. They are side-by-side, or very close to it, in dogs tracks, but less aligned in cats. Again, there are exceptions. Animals making a turn or walking on a slope or irregularities in their path can change the track.

It is also helpful to know what animals live in your area. Although I know people who swear that they spotted a moose or a mountain lion in our state, neither exists here now. (Same thing for the Jersey Devil, though we keep looking.) We have no true lynx in the state.

Not that these animals never lived in this area or won't some day move back into our area. Climate change and habitat changes often cause species to migrate from their normal range. The bears that first entered New Jersey on their own are evidence of that.

There are no recent confirmed sightings of mountain lions in N.J., but at the time of colonization by Europeans to our area, mountain lions did live here. They became extirpated (not extinct) in our state in the early part of the 19th century. Reports of the last ones being killed in Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean counties exist between 1830 and 1840.

So, the track at the top of this post is a cat, and big enough to not be a house cat and therefore it is a bobcat, New Jersey's only wild cat.


Try identifying the tracks in the snow around your neighborhood or venture out right after a snowfall to a local wooded area. Tracks change quickly as wind and melting occur, so it is best in the first hours after the snowfall.

There are many sites online about tracking and lots of good books and field guides on animal tracking to take along as you learn to "read" the stories in the snow.

Two of my favorites were written by the famous New Jersey tracker, Tom Brown, Jr.. His books, Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking and the Science and Art of Tracking are not only informative and fun to read, but also have a bit of a local feel to them as Tom was raised and still lives in our state and knows it well.

If you want to be amazed, take one of his classes and listen to him talk about and demonstrate how to track a bird's flight, or track an animal walking across rocks that leave no tracks.


And if you want to do some armchair tracking adventure as the weather gets colder, I highly recommend the book that took me from being a casual glance-at-track walker to trying to really understand what I was seeing.

That is Tom's classic, The Tracker, most of which is set right here in NJ. (Hat tip to my good friend Steve Smith who taught that book and gave me my first copy.)

Two other books on my shelf are  Tracking and the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign and  The Tracker's Field Guide. Although I am better at reading tracks than most people, I am no Tom Brown. I have copied and printed a few pages of common tracks for our area and still carry them when I go out for hose tracking walks.

I think that like looking up at the night sky and knowing where the North Star and Venus and the Big Dipper can be found, knowing what is in front of us here on Earth - tracks, plants, trees, insects and animals - is essential knowledge and a key to mindfulness.

Bobcat - Photo by John Parke, Picasa via nj.com

New Jersey's Wild Cat

Bobcat by Bill W Ca at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

Bobcats, Lynx rufus, are active all throughout the year, especially at night, and are New Jersey's only wild cat.

These medium size felines can weigh between 15-35 pounds and are identified by their small ear tufts, tan, black and white spots and stripes patterned fur. They get their common name from the short "bobbed" tail with black only at the tip.

The much larger adult mountain lions can weigh 80-200 pounds and have a long tail, no ear tufts and solid tawny fur. Don't worry, you won't encounter the mountain lion (AKA cougar, puma, panther, or catamount) on your New Jersey walks. The last ones in the state were killed in Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean counties around 1840.

Bobcats originally were more widespread throughout the state. Now, they appear to be limited to mainly Sussex, Warren, Morris, Passaic and Hunterdon counties, along with some sighting in the Pinelands.

They are listed as a State Endangered species. The NJDEP uses radio telemetry and camera studies and reports by citizen scientists and physical evidence (scat, tracks and road-kill recovery) to monotor the population. They appear to be widening their range, including moving to and from bordering Pennsylvania and New York.

Still, these rather secretive animals are a rare sighting for the casual woods walker. They live in a variety of habitat types, including woodland, wetland and agricultural settings in our state. My only sighting was on a walk in a rocky, forest area in Sussex County.

A Warren County reader of this blog posted a comment on an earlier post this year and asked if what his home security camera captured was a lynx or bobcat. I replied that no "lynx" exist in NJ, but the bobcat is "Lynx rufus" scientifically and it is NJ's only wild cat species.

Though he wasn't asking a question of semantics, the "lynx" is a member of the cat family found in temperate and colder areas of the Northern Hemisphere. There are four species of lynx: the Canada lynx (which is the one people are thinking of when they use that name), the Spanish lynx, the bobcat, and the caracal.

The difference of lynx versus bobcat is mostly one of size and habitat. The lynx is sadly valued for its warm, lightweight fur. Most lynxes are grayish-brown in color, often spotted or streaked with black. They have short bodies, stumpy tails, and tufted ears.

Here is the reader's video of the visitor passing by his home which he posted on YouTube.

Hey, Is That a Bobcat in My Backyard?

More and more people have webcams on their property for security, but sometimes they also capture wildlife.

Here's an example of one that was sent to me recently. (The animal in question appears about 1:40 into the video)



The owner asks if it is a bobcat or lynx?

Bobcats, or Lynx rufus, do exist in our state. The smallest species of lynx is the bobcat.

Speaking of sightings, here is a common query that the NJDEP, Audubon and even this blog gets. What is this animal?

"There is not a year that goes by where I do not meet someone who knows someone who heard of a guy that either swears he saw or heard that there was a sighting of a mountain lion roaming the woods and fields of N.J. in recent years. In fact, we here at N.J. Audubon also get actual "physical evidence" of these sightings in the form of emailed photos."

No mountain lions in N.J. They were here a long time ago, but they became extinct here with the last animals killed in Atlantic, Cape May and Ocean counties between 1830 and 1840.

But the bobcat - that is N.J.'s only wild cat.   Is that what is in the video?

Bobcat feeding via wdfw.wa.gov

Here are some facts to consider:

• They are active all throughout the year, especially at night. 
• They can weigh between 15-35 pounds and are about twice the size of a house cat.
• Look for small ear tufts
• They can have tan, black and white spots and stripes fur
• They have a short "bobbed" tail with black only on top at the tip. 
• Though the bobcat prefers to hunt rabbits and hares, it will hunt anything from insects, chickens, geese and other birds and small rodents to deer. 
• They are territorial and largely solitary. To mark its territorial boundaries it will leave claw marks and deposits of urine or feces.

Is that a bobcat in the video?
Post your answer as a comment below.

Bobcat seen on a trail camera near Blairstown, Nov. 2011 via nj.com

Bobcats and Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey

The Endangered and Nongame Species Program is launching a new project called “Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey,” which maps critical habitat for bobcats and other species and identifies connecting corridors.

A Statewide Habitat Connectivity Plan will serve as a blueprint for strategic habitat conservation and will also highlight additional actions necessary to restore and maintain critical habitat linkages. The end products of this effort will consist of:  1) a statewide map depicting areas crucial for habitat connectivity, and  2) a menu of implementation actions, relating to each identified corridor that will provide guidance on how to secure, or restore each corridor. 

The state Department of Transportation is part of the study group, and could use information from the mapping to create new safe crossings where roads have become barriers, and make existing passage areas safer in high-mortality spots.

Data collected on bobcats is now being analyzed by researcher at Rutgers University, who will come up with a “conservative” population estimate and identify population trends over time. Those numbers will be used to assist with the recovery of New Jersey’s bobcats. In 1991, the bobcat was placed on the state’s endangered species list.

They’re pretty rare to see because they are hard to spot in the wild, but it appears that their numbers are increasing. That's a great comeback story since they had virtually vanished from New Jersey by the 1970s due to habitat loss. Restoration projects began then with wildlife officials bring bobcats trapped in Maine to the state from 1978 to 1982. Those 24 bobcats were released in sections of Warren, Sussex and Morris counties north of Interstate 80.

Bobcats are our only native cat. Although they may look like a housecat (especially when young), they can be twice the size of a domesticated housecat. Females generally weigh 18 to 25 pounds, while males can weigh up to 38 pounds. These predators mostly eat small mammals like rabbits, squirrels and mice, although they can take down small or sick deer and wild turkeys.

MORE INFORMATION
conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2014/12/17/new-jerseys-little-lion-biologists-shed-light-on-elusive-bobcat
dailyrecord.com/story/opinion/2015/03/07/bobcat-population-rebounding-new-jersey/24483389/
conservewildlifenj.org/blog/tag/connecting-habitat-across-new-jersey-chanj/

Bobcat Sightings More Frequent in New Jersey

Bobcat seen on a trail camera near Blairstown, Nov. 2011 via nj.com

A sighting this week of a bobcat in Boonton reminds residents that this endangered species exists in New Jersey and is making a comeback.

These cats, much larger then house cats and with tufted ears, are rarely seen by humans. They prefer to live in isolated large wooded and rocky areas away from homes.

The bobcat seen in Boonton Township was near the Splitrock Reservoir and is an area where deer, foxes, bears, and coyotes are not unusual sightings.

There have been a number of bobcats spotted in the area around the Picatinny Arsenal, a state zoologist told the Daily Record but they are most frequently found north of Route 80.

It seems that they are moving to other sections of Morris County. Although the bobcat population of this native NJ species is climbing in the state's northern region, they remain endangered in New Jersey.

The bobcat is a medium sized-cat, about two feet tall. It is larger than a housecat, but much smaller than the big cats like a cougar or lion. Adult females in NJ generally weigh between 18 and 25 lbs. while adult males can weigh as much as 35 lbs. Their fur ranges from yellowish brown to reddish brown and bears markings that vary from ‘tabby’ stripes to heavy spotting. They possess slightly tufted ears and a short bobbed tail (between three and seven inches long) that is black above at the tip. Generally they hunt both by night and day, although there is evidence to suggest that most hunting takes place at dawn and dusk.

The NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife conducted a restoration project where 24 bobcats captured in Maine were released in northern New Jersey from 1978-1982. By the 1990’s reports of bobcat sightings began to increase. Today, bobcat reports from northern NJ are on the increase. Unfortunately, so are the numbers of bobcats killed by automobiles on our highways. During a one year period between 2008 and 2009, fourteen bobcats were observed on NJ roads and ten of these were hit by cars.

Bobcat feeding via wdfw.wa.gov

More info:  http://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/bobcat.pdf

Encountering Bobcats in New Jersey

Bobcat by Chris Davidson via http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/

The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is one of NJ's endangered mammals. The are not usually seen by residents because of their habits, but I was not shocked to read an article recently in via The Daily Record that a photographer was able to get a shot of one last month in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

"I was doing nature photography and in early spring, I spotted it numerous times," George Draney recalled. So be began staking out a narrow, scrub-lined path twice a week, for about three or four months. A couple of times the bobcat crept by him but was gone before he could shoot a photo, he said.

The morning he finally got the shot, he was sitting in his car near the path and the bobcat was between 25 and 50 yards away, he said.

"I saw it going up the pathway in a hurry, so I thought to make a noise to make it look my way," Draney said. "So I whistle real loud, and it stopped. When I shot, it turned, and I got two more shots."

He described it as appearing healthy, about the size of a medium dog and weighing about 25 pounds.

The State estimates our population of bobcats to be at least 90, with most living north of Route 80.

They had disappeared from NJ by the early 1970s because of habitat loss. About 20 bobcats (from Maine) were reintroduced from 1978 to 1982 to repopulate them here.

One unfortunate indicator of their return are the dozen road kills found in the past year, including one on Route 46 in Parsippany near the Boonton Reservoir this past spring.

Taxonomically, bobcats belong to the order Carnivora, or carnivores, meaning that they are
primarily flesh-eaters. They are members of the Felidae family and are commonly known as felines. All members of this family look somewhat similar in appearance. (here is a comparative track guide)


Bobcats live in both the northern and southern portions of NJ. In the north, typical bobcat habitat consists of large areas of contiguous forest and fragmented forests interspersed with agricultural areas or early succession vegetation.

Bobcats often use areas with rock outcrops, caves, and ledges that provide shelter and cover for hunting, resting and rearing young. Where rocky areas are not available, swamps, bogs, conifer stands and rhododendron and mountain laurel thickets provide good cover and excellent hunting grounds.

In southern New Jersey, dense thickets of briars and conifers serve as resting and escape cover, so the bobcat have the ability to adapt to a wide variety of habitat types and prey species.


The Delaware Water Gap and other areas of Kitatinny Ridge are the best habitat areas the state has for bobcats, says Mick Valent, a wildlife biologist for the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, who said there's no reason to doubt Draney's account.

State biologists have found bobcat tracks and scat in the Water Gap area, and have photographed them there with motion-sensitive cameras baited with scent, Valent said.

Bobcats are so shy that they pose no danger for people, and are so reclusive that you would be lucky to actually see one.

Their individual territories ranging from one square mile to 25 square miles. Habitat continues to be the major problem in maintaining their numbers. They find a good supply of mice, chipmunks, squirrels and birds in the areas where they exist.

NJDEP document on bobcats

Bobcats in the Conserve Wildlife Newsletter, Winter 2007