State game commission responds to reports of big cats in area
Photo courtesy of Brandon Pape and Courtney Loy This photo posted on the “Washington County What’s Going On” Facebook group shows an animal seen in Clarksville that group members tried to identify.
Washington County residents were talking about the possibility of ferocious felines in the area after photos purporting to a feature a bobcat killed by a motorist and another of a mountain lion were shared on a popular Washington County Facebook group .
But Tom Fazi, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s information and education supervisor for the Southwest region, said these reports are quite common and the photos alone are hard to analyze.
“Most of the time, the pictures are grainy or have no depth perception to make the size (of the animal) clear,” Fazi said.
A photo posted on the “Washington County PA What’s Going On” group Wednesday evening included a claim that a baby bobcat was struck and killed on Route 519 in Eighty Four. The photo, which does not actually show any bobcat, led to a flurry of responses.
However, Fazi confirmed that Washington County conservation officer Dan Fitler received no report on any incident of a bobcat being killed in the Eighty Four area. Even if the report was confirmed, it’s unlikely the game commission would have taken any action.
“It wouldn’t be something we would even worry about,” Fazi said. “Our bobcat population is pretty healthy across the state.”
Before the bobcat report, a photo was shared Sept. 28 on the Facebook group that purported to show a black “big cat” spotted in Clarksville with a dead fawn in its mouth. Speculation continued about the animal, with users claiming it could be a mountain lion or something as simple as a black Labrador retriever.
Fazi said he doubts that the animal photographed is a mountain lion, because “there is no documented evidence of wild mountain lions in the state.”
“We follow up on every report in the state and we’ve never been able to confirm one, live or dead,” Fazi said.
However, Fazi did explain that while no mountain lions have been found in the state, game commission officers know to “never say never,” noting that a recent confirmed mountain lion sighting in Connecticut that made its way there from Michigan.
Pennsylvania Game Commission Officer Jeremy Febinger, who is assigned to Greene County, said last week that he reviewed two photos of the animal and said it appeared to be either a dog or a bear. He added that the game commission has no plans to trap or capture the animal.
As far as Facebook users speculating the animal in the photograph is a more exotic cat species, Fazi said Pennsylvania has very strict laws regarding bringing exotic animals into the state. However, game commission officers have confiscated exotic animals from Pennsylvanians in the past, so “that’s always a possibility.”
Fazi said that any Pennsylvania residents who want to learn more about the game commission should visit their website at http://pgc.pa.gov.
Greene County Bureau Chief Mike Jones also contributed to this story.