Mountain Lion Reported in Penn. Town Turns Out to Be a Large Feral House Cat, Officials Find

The Pennsylvania Game Commission said it's unlikely for mountain lions to be living in the state today

Residents in Lower Macungie, Pennsylvania, are breathing a sigh of relief after reports of a mountain lion roaming the area turned out to be a false alarm.

On Sunday, state troopers reported that a very large cat had been spotted in some fields behind a residential street, according to a public information release. The neighbor who contacted the police snapped a photo of the animal.

"Upon further investigation, it was determined that the image captured a large feline, possibly a mountain lion, in the fields behind Hanover Driver," the release said, noting that the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) was contacted and advised of the situation.

Residents were urged to be on guard and keep their children and pets indoors. However, by Monday afternoon, officials announced that testing done on tracks and droppings left behind by the purported mountain lion indicated the animal was likely a large feral house cat, according to CBS News Philadelphia.

PGC notes on its website that it's unlikely — but not impossible — for mountain lions to be living in the state.

"Except for Florida, the eastern mountain lion is believed to have extricated from the East Coast by 1900," the agency said. However, it did cite an instance in 2011 when a mountain lion managed to migrate an astonishing 1,500 miles from South Dakota to Connecticut.

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The last confirmed mountain lion in Pennsylvania was killed in 1874 in Berks County. Since then, there have been periodic reports of mountain lions in the state — but most have been determined to be cats like in Sunday's sighting.

"Our investigations have determined the overwhelming number of sightings of mountain lions in our state are actually bobcats," PGC said. "Photos submitted as mountain lions are typically feral house cats."

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In a similar story in August, two large house cats were photographed running through a cemetery in York, Pennsylvania, sparking concerns that they were mountain lions, according to local station Fox43. PGC later identified the animals and even sent an official out to the cemetery to place cardboard models representing the difference in size between the cats and a typical mountain lion.

"We made cutouts of a life-size house cat, a life-size bobcat, and a life-size mountain lion and were able to place those where the animal was seen in the photo and recreate the photo," PGC furbearer biologist Thomas Keller told Fox43.

The side-by-side comparisons made it quite evident that the cats seen in the cemetery were not nearly as large as a mountain lion would be.

Keller wasn't surprised. "I would never say it's impossible, but it's very, very unlikely because we don't have a breeding population of mountain lions in Pennsylvania," he said.

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