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 the most commented-on post on the site. 

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. In Morris County, a family in Montville Township claimed to have seen a mountain lion twice in their backyard. The witness described the animal as large, tan, with a long tail and muscular build. Although he reported the sighting to the police, there's no concrete evidence to support the claim.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the state's Fish and Wildlife Division have not confirmed any mountain lion sightings. They suggest that reports are often due to mistaken identity, with bobcats or coyotes being mistaken for mountain lions. Wildlife experts believe that while it's possible for a mountain lion to wander into New Jersey from other states, it's extremely rare. The nearest known mountain lion population is hundreds of miles away, making it unlikely for them to be present in the state.

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, a bobcat, and a 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.

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

Bobcats live in New Jersey and are considered endangered by the NJDEP. A bobcat is 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.

Did mountain lions ever live in our state? 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. 

Mountain lions, which once lived 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.

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 just a notch above the existence of the Jersey Devil.

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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/

Threatened, Endangered, Extinction and Extirpation

It is not unusual to hear the words “extinct” and “extinction” used. Sadly, they tell us that a species has vanished from the planet. Every little kid knows that - despite the ideas in the Jurassic Park movies - the dinosaurs are extinct.

It is a process, like climate change, that naturally occurs and has been happening long before humans were around. Since life began on our planet, it is estimated that about 99 percent of all species that ever lived have gone extinct. Most of that is due to natural causes.

Humankind played no role in most of these extinctions, but for the most recent extinctions, we do play a part.

The passenger pigeon, wild dromedary camel, the dodo bird, the Javan tiger, the dusky seaside sparrow and others on a long list can be blamed on our hunting, harvesting and destruction of habitat.

Less commonly heard is the term extirpate. Some species are not gone forever (extinct) but have disappeared from large areas of their original, natural habitat. We say that they been extirpated which means completely gone from a particular region—in other words,”locally extinct.”

For example, the American red wolf used to be common throughout much of the Southeastern U.S., but by 1980, Canis rufus had been extirpated everywhere but along a narrow strip of coastal eastern Texas. Of course, if that last small population of wolves had been killed off, the species would have gone extinct.

In New Jersey, cougars, bobcats and bald eagles all went through being threatened, endangered and extirpated.  But bobcats and bald eagles were reintroduced to the state and have made comebacks. (I don't expect  a similar program for cougars!)

Pine Barren tree fog via conservewildlifenj.org

Another state example is the Pine Barrens tree frog (Hyla andersonii) which for a time was a logo favorite for state conservation programs. It is a species of New World tree frog that has become endangered due to habitat loss.

At only 1–3 inches (25–76 mm) long, it is one of the smaller species of tree frogs.

The Pine Barrens tree frog is currently distributed in three disjunct areas in the eastern United States: the New Jersey Pine Barrens; the Sandhills of North and South Carolina; and the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama.

It is the state frog of North Carolina. As far as I can find, NJ has no state frog. I nominate this little green wonder.

In our Pine Barrens, it is most commonly found in brushy areas, often near peat bogs or shallow ponds and areas carpeted with thick moss. The adults are terrestrial, but tend to reside near water sources. Unlike most frogs, they are tolerant of low pH levels, and often lay eggs in the shallow, acidic ponds which are found in the Pinelands.

Hyla andersonii was listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service between 1977 and 1983, when additional populations were found in Florida.

Those red wolves were placed in a captive breeding program, and some have been released into one area of North Carolina, where they have since been breeding successfully. As with our Jersey eagles and bobcats, these programs have also brought back the California condor, the American bison to repopulate areas from which they were extirpated by humans.

Gray Whales and New Jersey

A spyhopping Gray Whale

The North Atlantic Gray whale became extirpated in New Jersey waters back in the whaling industry days of the early 1700s. That means they no longer exist in these waters, but are not extinct because they exist in other locations. They were once found off the coasts of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada as well as on the other side of the Atlantic, along the coast of Europe.

This is the same species that is found along the Pacific coast of the U.S. as well as the northern Pacific coast of Asia. The North Atlantic name indicates its geographic location, not a distinct species. These whales probably were extirpated from Atlantic waters off Europe first and, as the New World was settled, began to disappear from the Atlantic coast of North America.

Gray whales off the Pacific coast of North America were also hunted and were critically endangered in the 20th century, but protective measures have allowed the gray whale population in the eastern Pacific Ocean to rebound. They were removed from the U.S. List of Endangered and Threatened Species in 1994. But, Gray whales in the western Pacific Ocean, along the coasts of Russia and Korea, remain endangered. Estimates are that this population has no more than 100 individuals remaining.

Like gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, North Atlantic gray whales were primarily a coastal whale. Since they did not travel as far from shore, they became an easy species for whalers.  Whalers also targeted young whales which stay close to the mother. In earlier times, they would migrate between winter breeding and calving grounds in the southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, including NJ, to summer foraging grounds in New England.

Gray whales are benthic filter feeders which means that they will scoop up large mouthfuls of fine sediment and then use the baleen strips within their mouth and their tongue to squeeze out the sand and water from their mouth while trapping small invertebrates inside to feed on.

Gray whales can grow to a length of 50 feet and a weight of 80,000 pounds, with females being slightly larger than males. They are mottled gray in color with small bumps along their back, and no fin. They have a double blowhole. They are often covered by barnacles. Their only natural predators are large sharks and killer whales, which usually target young whales or calves.

Close-up of a Gray Whale's double blow hole and encrusted barnacles.
Photo in San Ignacio Lagoon, Baja California, by Philkon Phil Konstantin

Extirpated Species of New Jersey

There are some species that are not threatened or endangered but that have been lost from New Jersey. This is known as extirpated, not extinct, because they survive in other parts of their historical range.

Although it is possible, it is unlikely that they will naturally return to NJ. They are still stories worth knowing because they help us understand how species disappear from a geographic area.

The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ  reports that five extirpated species are the cougar (Felis concolor), Eastern pearlshell (Margaritifera margaritifera), North Atlantic gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), Rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) and Trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus).

Puma By Saguaro National Park - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, Link

The cougar is also known as the mountain lion or puma. It is one of the most wide-ranging big cats in the world, although it's hard to imagine it once roaming the Garden State.

Though the cougar once ranged from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific and as far north as Canada and as far south as southern South America, today it does not live east of the Mississippi River except for a small population in southern Florida and a few stray individuals.

Cougars are carnivores who hunt alone and feed on small mammals such as rabbits and squirrels to larger animals such as deer and livestock such as sheep or young cattle.

They began to disappear in the late 1700’s partially due to habitat loss as towns and cities grew. Cougars need a large area for their hunting. Also, because of fear and to stop livestock losses, rewards were offered for cougar kills and the remaining animals were eliminated by the early 1800s.