Yes, That’s A Mountain Lion In Ring Cam Footage From NY! No, You’re Not In Danger

It’s the first time a mountain lion has been spotted in New York since 2011. Authorities aren’t sure if the cat is an escaped — and illegal — pet, or if it made an epic journey from the west coast.

For the first time in 14 years, there’s a puma on the loose in New York.

The wild cat was spotted on a Rochester woman’s Ring doorbell camera padding along the sidewalk in front of her home at about 4 am on Wednesday morning.

A representative from the state Department of Environmental Conservation cautiously said the agency is working on confirming the species of cat in the footage.

But the feline’s size, gait and tail are dead giveaways, despite the dark footage and fleeting glimpse: it’s a puma.

In the brief clip, the wild feline walks past a tree, giving the DEC an important context clue. Michael Palermo, a wildlife manager with the department, said his team measured the tree, allowing them to closely estimate the animal’s size by comparing the footage to their measurements.

“If, in fact, it is some large cat, we would want to question, how did it get here? It’s not impossible for a wild cougar to travel to New York; it’s happened before,” Palermo said. “Was it a captive one that may have been legal as a licensed facility, and if so, did it escape? We still need to do some work to verify anything like that.”

While pumas were once native to New York and thrived in the forested mountains of regions like the Catskills (“cat creek” in Dutch), the last verified sighting in New York was in 2011. That cougar crossed through the Empire State after an epic journey from the west coast, a stronghold for the species.

Some people who posted to a Rochester community group on Facebook are already freaking out, and pumas are widely misunderstood, so it’s important to note the facts:

  • Pumas are not African lions, are not closely related to them and do not behave like them
  • They’re not aggressive toward people. In fact, they try to stay away from humans and will go out of their way to avoid confrontation
  • The exceptions are when people threaten a puma’s cubs or corner the animal, giving it no opportunity to escape
  • Americans are 150 times more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a puma. There are only 27 reported cases of people killed by pumas in more than a century. By contrast, an estimated 4,300 to 10,000 Americans have been killed by dogs in that same time span. (Higher estimates include people who did not die immediately from dog bites, and people who died of infections or complications from bites.)
  • While some people and media reports erroneously call pumas “big cats,” they are not members of the panthera genus. They are felines more closely related to domestic cats and small wildcats. Accordingly, pumas can purr and meow, but they cannot roar

Pumas are also known as mountain lions, cougars, panthers, painters, screamers, catamounts, pangui, onca parda, cuguacuarana, katalgar, chimbica, shunta-haska, fire cats, California lions, ghost cats, and red tigers, among many other names.

In fact, the species has more names than any other animal. That’s because it’s adaptable with a historically wide and varied range. There are some 40 names for pumas in English and more than 80 in Spanish, Portuguese and the languages of indigenous Native American tribes.

The species is officially known as puma concolor, or “puma of one color” thanks to its typically biege fur that, unlike tigers, jaguars, leopards and even house cats, does not have stripes, spots or rosettes.

While it’s extremely unlikely the mystery cougar would pose a threat to people, Rochester police — who have fielded several reports of sightings in recent days — advise locals to keep their pets indoors and to exercise caution while walking their dogs.

Update: The DEC has officially confirmed the cat is a puma, although it was obvious from the footage.

In the meantime, a Rochester man says he saw the wild cat — and people running away from it — on Wednesday night.

Although that sighting has not been substantiated by authorities, it does illustrate the need to educate the public about these animals.

“You know, a mountain lion, it be ‘rawr.’ They be crawling and… serious,” Curtis Jones told WHAM, an ABC affiliate in Rochester.

“I am going to keep this bat right here, man, just in case,” he told a TV reporter. “I am going to protect us, I ain’t going to let nothing happen to us, nothing. OK?”

Let’s hope common sense somehow finds its way into the Facebook algorithm amid all the misinformation as the locals discuss the sightings online.

If you’re from the area, we beg you: please do not attack, shoot or chase after the puma with a baseball bat. The animal does not consider you food, is not a danger to you, and is probably scared and hungry.

That deserves special emphasis if, as the DEC’s staff have said, the puma is more likely an escaped captive than a long-wandering traveler from the western US.

Jones said he saw the puma “slithering” and hear it “rawr,” but it’s worth noting, again, that pumas are members of the genus felinae, meaning they’re genetically and behaviorally much closer to house cats and can meow and purr, but cannot roar. Despite their size, mountain lions are not true “big cats.”

As for Jones, we hope him and his neighbors give the cat a wide berth and let the authorities safely capture it, have a veterinarian evaluate, and figure out where it belongs.

“I don’t play with lions, I don’t play with tigers, bears, nothing in the wild, I don’t play with those, I promise you,” Jones told the station. “I don’t even do rollercoasters. I’m good.”

17 thoughts on “Yes, That’s A Mountain Lion In Ring Cam Footage From NY! No, You’re Not In Danger”

  1. Am here early for a change … Wow I’m surprised wildlife officials are admitting this as here they almost always say it’s a housecat or a big dog. Talk of panthers was banned from several official wildlife fb pages. Fastest way to start an online argument and there are many sightings, reports every year … Life in Tennessee was latest fb page where someone said they saw one ( with a picture) and the usual arguments occurred. I myself am going to argue with your linked articles’ origin of the term painter, I think it’s a southeastern word morph from the term “panther” that’s in use in many less populated areas (i. e. Florida Panther, a subspecies). My husband grew up close to the Florida line and painter and panther were both used there. In fact “painter” really confused my late Bud the Editing Cat in one of my blog posts (well that actually was a fictionalized conversation, lol.) In fact, we lived in the wilderness and we thought one night we might have had one nearby, it’s written up in my book. (Am still trying to find the right copy but we’ve both had illness trouble lately.) Well, there is also the song “Panther in Michigan” by Michael Smith, which sounds like it’s based on a real incident. But I still think the term “painter” is southeastern US in origin.

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    1. I thought “painter” was a regional corruption of “panther” as well, and that seems to be the consensus, unless it’s not etymologically related and is just a coincidence.

      Full disclosure: I worked with the NYS DEC quite a bit during my general assignment news days, knew the regional staff pretty well, and considered them pros. They were always straight with me and did a good job of responding to questions quickly and transparently.

      In this case, even though the clip is very short and it’s night footage, the cat’s body shape, gait and tail are clear. As soon as I saw it, I recognized it as a puma. The tail rules out almost anything else except maybe a leopard, and if there was a leopard running around Rochester, well, that would be really bizarre.

      Heads up to you and other readers: The post has been updated with positive confirmation from the DEC and some quotes from a local that underscore the need for education. People in the western US, especially California and the surrounding states, are generally familiar and pretty well-informed, so they know pumas don’t have the dispositions of African lions. But here on the east coast, we encounter them so rarely that most people have never seen one.

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      1. Sounds like Curtis Jones knows not to bother the animal, and that’s good. I hope there’s a suitable place to release it when captured. I looked on fb and saw one of the videos. Looks like a cougar to me. So does the picture from Tennessee but there’s a ” no that’s a bobcat” vs. “I see cougars often” discussion going on …

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      2. Leah, is the Tennessee photo the one from last year with a cat crouched on a log and watching a deer?

        I can see why there would be a debate about that, as it’s a still image, you can’t see the tail, and you can’t see if the back legs are proportional like a puma or longer like a bobcat.

        With this one, we get the benefit of seeing the gait, legs and tail, and lots of familiar context clues from a sidewalk and street.

        The Curtis quotes were funny and I’m glad he says he’s going to steer clear, but since this is ‘Merica, I worry someone is going to think shooting the puma is a good idea.

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      4. There are lots of them in northern California, Washington, Oregon, etc. Some are born in their more dense population center in and around SoCal and migrate north, which is why those nature bridges over major highways can’t be built soon enough.

        P-22 migrated north from the San Diego area, IIRC.

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  4. Big Buddy, the TN photo is on an fb page Life in Tennessee and shows a large cat in sitting position, you can’t see the back end. I don’t see a deer. It’s not a very good picture and there are forms I can’t make out. There’s a comment that says “I saw a cougar in Panther Creek Park…”) So, could even be bad AI, and I can understand why there’s room for doubt. Nevertheless the commenting pattern and arguing of the over 700 comments matches all the other responses to similar pics I’ve seen over the years. LOL

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    1. Ah, Facebook, where people see images of AI generated houses and comment “OMG beautiful, but why is there a car in the living room and a staircase leading to a wall?”

      It’s a scourge on humanity, used by a billion people who don’t realize they are the product, involuntarily training Zuckerberg’s algorithms and being manipulated by propaganda pages operated out of countries like Belarus and Myanmar.

      I couldn’t find the photo but I’m sure the debate followed the usual parameters. 🙂

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    1. Have you seen videos of that Russian couple who adopted a puma they call Messi, after the footballer? They say a zoo was going to put him down due to some condition and they convinced the zoo to give him to them. They lived in a small apartment at the time.

      An absolutely implausible story in the US and western Europe, but Russia? I don’t know.

      Regardless, while they’re not pets, Messi is very affectionate and house cat-like with them. Very sweet cat.

      But yeah, I see those giant paws and I think, they can do some serious damage even accidentally. Doesn’t look like Messi would ever intentionally harm his people, but it makes you wonder what happens when he gets startled or scared.

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      2. Then you’re much better equipped to judge the veracity of the story than I am. Are you fluent in Russian? And did you have a concentration in a particular area like literature or history? It’s such a broad topic, it seems like it would be overwhelming to be a generalist in thst area.

        I’ve read some Chekhov because one of my favorite novelists, David Mitchell, holds him in high esteem, but sadly I have not read the other classics yet.

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      3. Read Anna Karenina and War and Peace. By Leo Tolstoy. Best darn books in the world. They are very long – maybe read on vacation if you like. You’re in for a treat. 😊💟😻

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      4. I am not fluent. I specialized in political science and literature. I was interested in a job with the government that did not work out. If you want a place to start, I would recommend Tolstoy’s short stories. Russian literature has a well-deserved reputation for being depressing

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