False alarm on mountain lions: Large felines in York County determined to be house cats
The Pennsylvania Game Commission has concluded that two large cats spotted in York County are feral house cats.
Thomas Keller, furbearer biologist for the agency, said Friday that an investigation with scaled models revealed the two felines are large house cats, not mountain lions or other big cats.
Spring Garden Township Police issued an alert Wednesday about two large cats at the 1100 block of Southern Road. The animals were last seen heading north toward Mount Rose Cemetery. Julene Seaborg told the York Daily Record one was about the size of a golden retriever. The other one was smaller and had different coloring.
Keller and Sgt. Justine Ritter used scale-model cutouts of a house cat, bobcat and mountain lion where the cats were spotted to determine what they were.
"We looked for anything that could give us scale," he said. "It was fairly clear that it was a house cat."
He said when cats are seen at a distance, it's not easy to get the scale of a cat's true size. "All I can say is based on the evidence we collected that's likely two house cats, likely feral cats. Certainly with feral cats they can get to a certain size, but it's still the house cat species," Keller said.
Homeowner not entirely convinced
Seaborg, who alerted police after photographing the cats in her yard, said she was present when the Game Commission used the scale models.
"They showed me their cut outs and took pictures trying to replicate what I saw," she said. "The reference point they used they said it would most likely be large feral cats, 16'-17” to the shoulder. I myself have two Maine coon mix cats that are 18 pounds, and they are built nothing like what we saw. I’ve never seen them before and haven’t seen them since. I guess the good news is that they don’t believe there is any threat. For that I’m thankful."
Still, she said, she knows what she saw.
"Perhaps I’m wrong, I’m not an expert, but I do know what my son, 25 years old, and I saw were larger and muscular bodies, unlike anything we’ve seen before," she said. "I honestly think they were some sort of a mix that was dumped."
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"It's important because there is a school bus stop nearby, and they had the parents drive their kids down," Keller said about concerns about what types of felines were loose.
Keller said the commission only received one report about the cats in a highly developed area. "You would expect to see have received many reports if there were actually mountain lions roaming around in the middle of the day."
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors, X @whipkeyoutdoors and Instagram at whipkeyoutdoors.
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This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Cats aren't mountain lions in York
