Woodbine man claims he saw mountain lions near his home

Over an early-morning cup of coffee in mid-January, a Woodbine man got the surprise of his life.
“I’d say it was a little over five-feet-long from the tip of the nose to its tail,” said Ted Worley, describing what he says is a mountain lion that crossed a wide path that leads to a family cemetery just across Tower Road near his home.
“It was an off-gray color and it was big. I know it was a wild cat of some kind, because it was too big to be a regular house cat or anything like that.”
From his living room about 50 yards away, Worley claims the big cat ambled across the path and into thick underbrush. He hasn’t seen it since.
A week later, though, two more large cats, though not as big as the first, walked the same path.
“It all happened too quick,” Worley said. “I’ve got my camera by the door now. If I see them again, hopefully I can get a picture. I wouldn’t have had time to grab my camera the first time.”
Though the unusually large cats haven’t made an appearance in about a month, Worley said there’s other evidence they exist. He points to large, clawless prints in bare dirt near the cemetery that he discovered late last week. Cats don’t leave telltale nail prints in their tracks because their claws are retractable.
There are also other signs. Some wildlife normally plentiful in his neighborhood has become scarce.
“Back in the spring and even this winter, there were quite a few rabbits. Now, there’s none,” Worley said. “And I haven’t seen any deer since, I guess, about the end of last November.”
Worley said he asked a cousin who raises cattle if any of his stock was missing. It was not.
Leland Worley, Ted Worley’s cousin and neighbor, said the sightings have been a talking point between the two for weeks.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing around here,” Leland Worley said. “Where he said he found a den is right in front of my house. I thought, that’s real nice.”
Laura Patton, a Wildlife Biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, while not discounting the sightings, said the chances of the animals actually being mountain lions are slim. Mountain lion, cougar, puma and panther are all common names for the same animal.
“I’m sure it’s possible, but it’s highly unlikely,” Patton said. “Cougars were once native to Kentucky, but disappeared in the late 1800s to early 1900s due to over hunting and human intrusion. We haven’t had a wild cougar sighting in Kentucky since.”
Cougars typically only inhabit states west of the Mississippi, although Patton said there are increased sightings of the animal in neighboring Missouri, though still relatively rare. She said almost always, people that claim to have seen a wild cougar or mountain lion probably has spotted an escaped pet, a large dog or a more common cat.
“Most people that see cougars are actually seeing bobcats. We try to get people that report sightings to take a picture if they can. A lot of times, bobcats have really long legs in proportion to their body, so it makes them look taller.”
Bobcats normally prey on rabbits and small rodents and will take juvenile or injured deer from time to time. They can grow up to an average of about 3.2 feet long and normally have six-inch tails.
Kentucky even has an official bobcat hunting and trapping season, which began in 1997 and started full-force in 2003. This past season ran from Nov. 15, 2005 through Jan. 31, 2006.
Worley said he’s familiar with bobcats and doesn’t believe what he saw fits the bill.
“It’s not a bobcat,” he said. “They’ve got shorter tail. This thing had a long tail. It was a cougar. I’m sure of it.”
“I’d like to see it again so I can be sure of what I saw.”