About Mike Lynch

Mike Lynch is a multimedia reporter for the Adirondack Explorer. He can be reached at mike@adirondackexplorer.org. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter

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  1. Chris says

    Well done, Mike. A couple of points.

    As a member of the state wildlife action plan (SWAP) advisory committee, I helped draft the DEC’s cougar and wolf assessments for the SWAPs, which are now available for public comment. Though extirpated, both animals, with lynx, meet the federal criteria for Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). All three species have been dropped from the DEC’s SGCN list. Ask Mr. Batcheller why.

    The DEC has developed guidelines for restoring extirpated species. The cougar meets the DEC’s two primary criteria of “analysis and evaluation” Mr. Batcheller describes: a peer-reveiwed Adirondack habitat analysis, published in 2013, and the 2014 WCS public attitude survey, which found that “a large percentage of people in this survey are interested in some form of human intervention in mountain lion restoration.” Yet, Mr. Batcheller continues to ply the smokescreen of a poor ADK prey-base for cougars, apparently, without citing any research on cougar predation and habitat use, while suggesting that cougars would be drawn to areas of higher deer-density and thus, closer to human populations and conflict: a veiled public-safety threat.

    Vehicle collisions with deer kill 200, injure 20,000 and cause nearly $6 billion in damage annually in the US, a bigger public safety threat than all other wildlife combined. 70,000 deer are hit in NY State every year.

    A cougar attack has not occurred in 25 years of Midwest dispersal. A cougar attack has not occurred east of the Rockies since the 1850s. Three people have been killed by cougars in the US since 1998 (none since 2008).

    3,000 people have been killed and 300,000 have been injured by deer in the US since 1998.

    The DEC should be relying on science and statistics in its discussion of cougar recovery, and stop playing the fear card.

  2. AG says

    Strange people think they don’t pass through. The one killed in CT was seen in the Lake George area 6 months before. That’s not really far away… So say it was just six months (doubtful) – that meant there was a lot of hanging out in the same geographic region… Meaning to say – it doesn’t take 6 months to go from Lake George to Connecticut. There should have been a lot of pictures then – but there weren’t. It was healthy when it died – so what was it eating? If there “has to” be evidence of kills – well no one seems to know where those kills were. I guess they really are that elusive then.
    Plus the DEC would have simply said it was someone’s escaped pet – had it not been killed in CT.

  3. Philip Coltart says

    I saw a big cat. Long tail, but Lynx features. I walked up to it thinking it was a large fox. It was about a 70lb cat. No doubt whatsoever. It shocked me. July 2014 kings road, Corinth.

  4. Dave says

    Funny how I saw one lying, still in the road after being hit by a car. on the Taconic State Parkway, in the town of Stanfordville, Dutchess Co. Both NYSP and DEC were there to collect the carcass. Was may be 2009.

  5. John Palmer says

    We need a governor who’s a real outdoorsman and wants to bring back Elk, Wolves and Mountain lion.

  6. Brett Allen says

    Thought the readers may enjoy this… there are Mt Lions in the foothills of the Adirondacks already; just as ENCon predicted… of course I spoke to a Game Warden friend years ago would told me of one being killed by a car near the the lake. The Great Sacandaga Lake has had many sightings and a spate right after this article was published… http://www.sacandagaexpress.com/news/08232012_cats

  7. Kathleen Moulton says

    About 10 years ago I saw a mountain lion on our property – Stockholm, St. Lawrence County. I heard it before I saw it. It was pacing along the tree line and meadow.

    There was no confusion. The tail was long.

  8. bILL kENNICK says

    ON 1/22/2018 in Greenwood lake NY, I was visiting a friend on Mountain View road. I saw a large cat at a distance of 100 feet. It was maybe 3 times bigger than my 2 ordinary fat house cats whom I regularly see roaming the woods around my house. So I have a basis of comparison. This cat was tan and ordinarily shaped like a trim house cat. It had a long tail, tan, but with 3, maybe 4 black rings around it at the tip. Like a racoon tail but just at the tip and not furry. Nothing about this cat was furry. It was a lean cat. No big head, nothing like that . Proportioned like a house cat but very big and the striped tipped tail. Seen at noon to 12:30 PM in the woods at the end of Mountain View road. Temperature was a warm 45 degrees and it was not raining,. A little snow remained from last weeks snowfall but very little. The cat was nosing around taking its good old time moving across the landscape. My friend did not see it when I tried to point it out to her.

    Bill Kennick

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