Wife swears she saw a Mountain Lion Sunday morning in Perry County.....

[indiucky]

Haven't you heard that global warming has made it too warm even in Maine for moose to survive anymore? Given that Indiana much farther south and obviously much warmer, we should expect any secret deliveries of large ungulates to be of a tropically adapted variety.

We got an armadillo one time..Even made national news lol...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/03/rare-occurrence-armadillo-found-indiana/96109278/

http://44news.wevv.com/armadillo-found-perry-county/

 

[Hkindiana]

Expect to see moose soon too.

I don't exoect to see Moose any time soon, but I DO expect to see Elk as soon as they start crissing the Ohio river. There is such a large breeding population of elk in Virginia and Kentucky that they now have a hunting season on them. I think it is only time before they cross into Indiana.

 

[indiucky]

I don't exoect to see Moose any time soon, but I DO expect to see Elk as soon as they start crissing the Ohio river. There is such a large breeding population of elk in Virginia and Kentucky that they now have a hunting season on them. I think it is only time before they cross into Indiana.

The nice thing about being in that corridor where we are HK is the amount of wild spaces....I told the wife the big cat she saw and the big cat you saw were in nearly a straight line following 37 with large tracks of forest between the two...You look at a map of Indiana and it's green from Lawrence county to the river...It seems logical that wildlife coming from Kentucky is going to have to at least pass through where we are...And if they have any sense they will stay..

They just follow that Crawford Upland and they are on ridge line and in woods the whole way...

The Indians thought the same as we both well know...

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

indiuky, ask your wife if she had this kind of experience...

I've seen two in my 32 years at NSWC Crane. Both were close. The first one was in '87 and was confirmed to be an escaped exotic - I was less than 20 feet from that one. It stopped in the middle of the road and I stopped my car just in time to miss it. The cat looked and walked on.

The second one I mentioned above and I was 30 yards from that one. We locked eyes, there's no doubt what it was.

Here's the experience. In both cases there was a disconnect from what my eyes saw, what my brain categorized and identified, and another part of my brain then struggled to believe it. I grew up in southern Indiana. I never see these animals except in zoos. All I ever see are the animals we're accustomed to seeing. However, in both cases, what I saw was so close, so undeniable, yet my brain just did not accept it. Have you ever heard the phrase, "I couldn't believe what I saw"? It's a real thing. When confronted with something that doesn't belong...shouldn't be there, yet there it is, there's a struggle. It's surreal. Hard to describe.

 

[indiucky]

Here's the experience. In both cases there was a disconnect from what my eyes saw, what my brain categorized and identified, and another part of my brain then struggled to believe it. I grew up in southern Indiana. I never see these animals except in zoos. All I ever see are the animals we're accustomed to seeing. However, in both cases, what I saw was so close, so undeniable, yet my brain just did not accept it. Have you ever heard the phrase, "I couldn't believe what I saw"? It's a real thing. When confronted with something that doesn't belong...shouldn't be there, yet there it is, there's a struggle. It's surreal. Hard to describe.

I see what you mean but with her there was no doubt.....But here's the difference between her and you and I...She's from California...She KNEW what she saw...I was the one that said, "You mean coyote?", "Don't you mean bobcat?" and that's when she snapped and said, "I know what I saw and I know they are not supposed to be here..... I saw them in the wild at Big Bear and Yosemite when I was camping as a kid..."

But yes I know what you are talking about and I too have had that experience as well...Just a disconnect between reality and perception....

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

I see what you mean but with her there was no doubt.....But here's the difference between her and you and I...She's from California...She KNEW what she saw...I was the one that said, "You mean coyote?", "Don't you mean bobcat?" and that's when she snapped and said, "I know what I saw and I know they are not supposed to be here..... I saw them in the wild at Big Bear and Yosemite when I was camping as a kid..."

But yes I know what you are talking about and I too have had that experience as well...Just a disconnect between reality and perception....

Both times I literally had to walk myself through it. First time, I stopped. The cat's nose crossed the centerline as it's tail was still on the shoulder. I got out, walked it off, then let that information settle in. The body itself had to be nearly six feet. There are no cats here that big. There are no dogs here that big! The second time I measured the guard rail he was standing next to - 31" at the shoulder. One leap into the brush - 17 feet from a stand still. Nothing here like that. I saw a cougar. Couldn't be anything else. Then it settles in as the other side of your brain accepts what the eyes saw. Weird.

It makes me wonder, what if I saw a bigfoot. I don't believe they exist, but what if I saw one, close up, no mistake. Could I convince myself?

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

indiuky, ask your wife if she had this kind of experience...

I've seen two in my 32 years at NSWC Crane. Both were close. The first one was in '87 and was confirmed to be an escaped exotic - I was less than 20 feet from that one. It stopped in the middle of the road and I stopped my car just in time to miss it. The cat looked and walked on.

The second one I mentioned above and I was 30 yards from that one. We locked eyes, there's no doubt what it was.

Here's the experience. In both cases there was a disconnect from what my eyes saw, what my brain categorized and identified, and another part of my brain then struggled to believe it. I grew up in southern Indiana. I never see these animals except in zoos. All I ever see are the animals we're accustomed to seeing. However, in both cases, what I saw was so close, so undeniable, yet my brain just did not accept it. Have you ever heard the phrase, "I couldn't believe what I saw"? It's a real thing. When confronted with something that doesn't belong...shouldn't be there, yet there it is, there's a struggle. It's surreal. Hard to describe.

Isn't that what they call a normalcy bias? It's a little different than the circumstances I've generally seen that word used but it's kind of the same. I've typically heard that word used when one is in some sort of catastrophic event but the person's brain doesn't want to recognize the event for what it is in favor of what it considers "normal".

 

[indiucky]

Isn't that what they call a normalcy bias?

A normalcy bias is what happens when you come in the shop and I think, "Wow...Thank goodness I am normal...Poor Mrs. GFGT.."

Then Laura looks at me and says, "I bet he just said the same thing to Mrs. GFGT..."

 

[miguel]

They are using the black helicopters when they arent busy.

The DNR or the cougars?

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

A normalcy bias is what happens when you come in the shop and I think, "Wow...Thank goodness I am normal...Poor Mrs. GFGT.."

Then Laura looks at me and says, "I bet he just said the same thing to Mrs. GFGT..."

Are you kidding...Mrs. GFGT says that too!


(about me...she liked you).

 

[indiucky]

(about me...she liked you).

Of course she did...

Kind, goodhearted, God fearing women love pound puppies with a hint of an outlaw twinkle in their eye....She took you in didn't she...

 

[mom45]

 

[Leadeye]

Bobcats show up fairly often on my game cameras and the occasional feral cat.

Some nasty looking big coyotes as well.

 

[johntheplinker]

Rick, I don't doubt your wife's sighting one bit.
Saw one myself a couple or 3 years ago. Driving down the road on my way to work before dawn, pop over a little rise in the road, and in the low spot on the other side of the rise, there it was crossing the road. Slammed on the brakes but it was already into the weeds and brush on the other side. Paved 2 lane county road, head was well over the center line and tip of tail just barely on the road. Weeds were still moving where it hit the edge of the road but it was fairly dry and didn't leave much in the way of tracks.
This was about halfway from the house to 37, so about 10 miles or a bit less SSW from your place.

indiuky, ask your wife if she had this kind of experience...

I've seen two in my 32 years at NSWC Crane. Both were close. The first one was in '87 and was confirmed to be an escaped exotic - I was less than 20 feet from that one. It stopped in the middle of the road and I stopped my car just in time to miss it. The cat looked and walked on.

The second one I mentioned above and I was 30 yards from that one. We locked eyes, there's no doubt what it was.

Here's the experience. In both cases there was a disconnect from what my eyes saw, what my brain categorized and identified, and another part of my brain then struggled to believe it. I grew up in southern Indiana. I never see these animals except in zoos. All I ever see are the animals we're accustomed to seeing. However, in both cases, what I saw was so close, so undeniable, yet my brain just did not accept it. Have you ever heard the phrase, "I couldn't believe what I saw"? It's a real thing. When confronted with something that doesn't belong...shouldn't be there, yet there it is, there's a struggle. It's surreal. Hard to describe.

Yep, first thought I had was, "Was that what I thought it was?????"

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Of course she did...

Kind, goodhearted, God fearing women love pound puppies with a hint of an outlaw twinkle in their eye....She took you in didn't she...

She likes engineering nerds with a wierd sense of humor. Kind of like Leonard and Penny.

 

[Miller Tyme]

I saw the same Mountain Lion Rick , had him in my sights, but that cheap commie ammo FTF

 

[CountryBoy19]

Bobcats show up fairly often on my game cameras and the occasional feral cat.

Some nasty looking big coyotes as well.

That 2nd pic looks like a coy-dog hybrid, has a lot of german shepherd look to it...

 

[NKBJ]

Got a chuckle about the wildlife dept default mode answers.
A few years ago the better 2/3's and I were driving out of northwest Louisiana into Texas and one of the non-existent solid black ones ran across the highway. Other people had seen them too but for whatever reason the official party line was aint no such animal.

 

[indiucky]

Got a chuckle about the wildlife dept default mode answers.
A few years ago the better 2/3's and I were driving out of northwest Louisiana into Texas and one of the non-existent solid black ones ran across the highway. Other people had seen them too but for whatever reason the official party line was aint no such animal.

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife kept denying there were walleye in Rough River, just sauger.....My brother fished BWCA every year and we grew up on the Ohio river so we know the difference between sauger and walleye....My brother was catching them and eating them for two years before Kentucky Fish and Wildlife acknowledged they exist there...

They also said there were no wild brook trout down in the Red River Gorge...That didn't stop me from catching them for a couple of years on dry flies...(little bitty trickle of a creek, tough casting lol)....

 

[Brad69]

So in the last month we have seen Gray and Red Foxes, Coyote, Bobcat, Bald Eagle in our yard.
This in addition to the normal day to day animals we often wait in the drive way for the deer to move out of the way.
This being said I live in town!
Sightings of Cougar, Black Bear, Black Panthers are common in Perry County.
Indiuckys wife's sighting is very plausible most of "you northerners" would not believe how isolated we are down here.