http://www.alliednews.com/statenews/cnh ... 22815.html
Published October 23, 2007 10:28 pm - The king of the jungle just might be playing king of the mountain in a remote area of Greenbrier County.
Hunter says lion on the prowl in Greenbrier
By Christian Giggenbach
THE REGISTER-HERALD (BECKLEY, W.V.)
BIG ROARING CREEK, W.Va. —
The king of the jungle just might be playing king of the mountain in a remote area of Greenbrier County.
While bow hunting last Wednesday on his 40-acre plot of land at Big Roaring Creek at the foot of Cold Knob, Jim Shortridge of Frankford says he watched a full-grown male African lion, complete with a four-foot-long tail, pace around his hunting shanty for about 40 minutes before running off into the woods.
Shortridge was at the homemade hunting shanty before daybreak, at about 5:30 a.m., and was in the process of transferring his gear to the building when he first heard the animal. His only weapon at the time was a bow that was still in his truck a few feet away.
“He started growling at me and I hollered and it sounded like he was running away,” Shortridge said. “So I put my lunch box down and went back to my truck and got my bow.”
“He started growling again,” Shortridge continued, “and when I went back in the building and sat down, I turned the light on him. He was about 10 to 15 yards away, and he kept walking back and forth and was huffing and puffing at me.”
Shortridge, 72, a lifelong hunter of bear, deer, turkey and other wildlife, estimated the animal weighed between 250 to 300 pounds. With only a small flashlight to shine on the animal, Shortridge said it was hard to determine whether it had a full mane. But he will never forget the sounds the big cat was making.
“He was doing medium growls, but they kept getting louder and louder,” Shortridge said. “I’m not afraid of anything, but I’m a lot more cautious now and I don’t get out of the truck until daylight, and now I take my rifle with me.”
Shortridge has hunted the area twice since then, but hasn’t seen the lion, or much of anything else around.
“I know he’s around because there aren’t any deer here anymore,” he said. “I called the Division of Natural Resources and they told me I was the second call they had received about the lion.”
DNR Conservation Officer Gabe Frangos said there had been no documented evidence of a lion’s presence in the area, but he had spoken to Shortridge about his unusual experience.
“If it’s a mountain lion, then it’s a protected species in this state,” Frangos said. “But if it’s an African lion or an exotic animal, then our department doesn’t have any jurisdiction.”
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On Tuesday, Shortridge escorted The Register-Herald, along with his daughter, Kathy Hunter, and officials from the Tiger Mountain Refuge in Rainelle to the area where he last saw the animal. Tiger Mountain Refuge is a nonprofit organization that locates and rescues exotic animals and provides them with safe, permanent homes.
Owner John Forga wants to capture the lion and take it to his wildlife sanctuary in Nicholas County, which is already home to more than 60 animals, including a grown tiger and “Alex,” a 600-pound African lion. Forga said the lion they are searching for was probably an abandoned pet.
“If it was a pet, then chances are the lion was declawed and defanged,” Forga said during the trip to Big Roaring Creek. “The chances of it surviving in the wild are slim to none, and it may be helpless.”
After turning off U.S. 219, Shortridge traveled about 13 miles deep into the woods before coming to his property. There, Shortridge and Forga looked for signs of the animal, but no tracks were found because of a deep layer of freshly fallen leaves. Forga then dumped about 20 pounds of raw chicken onto the ground and sprayed a bottle of cologne on surrounding trees.
“If the lion is here, it will need nutrients and the chicken will provide that, plus it will give an indication that someone wants to feed it, so it will come back,” Forga said. “The cologne is used as a curiosity scent to attract the lion. The lion hopefully will claw the trees that have been scented and give us an indication he’s here.
“The sound to listen for would be like a cow bawling. If the lion is here, it probably would not make it through the winter.”
Forga said if he finds evidence the lion is in the area, he will come back with a team and devote resources to capturing the cat and take it back to Nicholas County.
But others may be searching for the lion as well, some without the same altruistic motives as Forga. The Mountain Messenger newspaper first broke the story about the lion on Saturday, and since then, word has traveled fast throughout the county.
“It’s here, believe you me. I am a Christian man and I saw it,” Shortridge said. “Now there’s talk that a group of hunters may be trying to hunt the lion and kill it.”
Christian Giggenbach writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.
African lion in West Virginia!
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Emily
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get out your hounds and cell phones guys
They're now offering a $3,000 reward for the live capture of this critter. Run him up a tree and give them a call!
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/10939086.html
Reward For Mystery Lion Save Email Print
Posted: 5:50 AM Nov 1, 2007
Last Updated: 1:08 PM Nov 1, 2007
Reporter: The Associated Press
Email Address: news@wsaz.com
117 comments
A | A | A
If an African lion is roaming the mountains of southeastern West Virginia, Angus Peyton wants it captured, not killed.
Peyton is offering a $3,000 award for the safe and humane capture of the lion.
He also wants the animal to be placed in refuge.
The Charleston broker says he fears someone may try to shoot the lion.
Bow hunter Jim Shortridge swears he saw a male African lion weighing between 250 and 300 pounds at the foot of Cold Knob Mountain earlier this month.
Rainelle-based Tiger Mountain Refuge and Greenbrier County animal control officer Robert McClung have placed motion-sensitive video cameras in that area in hopes of getting an image of the lion.
comments @
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/1093 ... l#comments
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/10939086.html
Reward For Mystery Lion Save Email Print
Posted: 5:50 AM Nov 1, 2007
Last Updated: 1:08 PM Nov 1, 2007
Reporter: The Associated Press
Email Address: news@wsaz.com
117 comments
A | A | A
If an African lion is roaming the mountains of southeastern West Virginia, Angus Peyton wants it captured, not killed.
Peyton is offering a $3,000 award for the safe and humane capture of the lion.
He also wants the animal to be placed in refuge.
The Charleston broker says he fears someone may try to shoot the lion.
Bow hunter Jim Shortridge swears he saw a male African lion weighing between 250 and 300 pounds at the foot of Cold Knob Mountain earlier this month.
Rainelle-based Tiger Mountain Refuge and Greenbrier County animal control officer Robert McClung have placed motion-sensitive video cameras in that area in hopes of getting an image of the lion.
comments @
http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/1093 ... l#comments
esp
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Emily
- Babble Mouth
- Posts: 1155
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:13 am
- Facebook ID: 0
- Location: Catskill Mountains, NY
trailcam vandalized
Published: November 03, 2007 12:05 am
http://www.register-herald.com/local/lo ... 00536.html
Tale of tape: Camera in lion search vandalized
By Christian Giggenbach
Register-Herald Reporter
LEWISBURG — The mystery of the supposed Greenbrier County African lion deepened Friday when animal control officials said vandals apparently tampered with a special video camera being used to track the mystery cat.
That ended the county’s attempt to videotape the lion, and a separate search by an organization that rescues exotic animals also ended Friday.
Animal control officer Robert McClung went back to the foot of Cold Knob Thursday to check for the second time the night-vision camera. However, the brush and leaves used to conceal the camera’s enclosed box had been stripped away, leaving the box uncovered.
“When I checked the camera, the tape had been completely rewound,” McClung said. “When I reviewed the tape, there was only a completely white image on the tape, plus the footage of where I originally tested the machine.”
McClung said it appeared someone had tampered with the video camera, valued at over $5,000, and placed a white piece of paper over its lens and pressed the record button. The camera was otherwise undamaged, he said.
“That’s a possibility, but then again, no one is exactly sure what happened,” McClung said. “One of the laser centers about 40 feet away had also been moved, but I cannot say for sure whether an animal or something else moved it.”
McClung was accompanied Thursday by Jim Shortridge of Frankford, the man who claims to have seen the lion two weeks ago while bow hunting. Other leads on the big cat will be followed, but the video camera has been pulled from the woods, McClung said.
Shortridge said wild animals foraging for the 45 pounds of meat left to bait the lion could have also knocked over the camera box. All of the meat was gone Thursday, he said.
- - -
A second physical search of Cold Knob by Tiger Mountain Refuge officials also ended Friday. Team members from the Rainelle-based nonprofit which rescues exotic animals have spent the last seven days and nights camping out on Cold Knob, but came up empty.
John Forga, owner of the refuge, said he’s becoming more skeptical that the lion is in the area. No signs of the animal were seen or heard in the 168 straight hours of searching by his team. Forga wants to wait for more sightings of the lion before continuing his search.
“Lions are very vocal animals that can be heard from five miles away,” Forga said Friday. “I just don’t know if there is a lion in that area.”
Forga did point to one bright spot that’s occurred due to the media attention given to the lion story. On Friday, three unwanted alligators from Fayette County were delivered to his refuge in Rainelle. These new additions will be added to the three alligators already living there.
“Two of the alligators had been confiscated by Fayette County animal control and the third was brought in by a private citizen,” Forga said. “We also got a call from North Carolina from a person who wanted to give us a harlequin macaw, an exotic bird.”
— E-mail:
cgiggenbach@register-herald.com
http://www.register-herald.com/local/lo ... 00536.html
Tale of tape: Camera in lion search vandalized
By Christian Giggenbach
Register-Herald Reporter
LEWISBURG — The mystery of the supposed Greenbrier County African lion deepened Friday when animal control officials said vandals apparently tampered with a special video camera being used to track the mystery cat.
That ended the county’s attempt to videotape the lion, and a separate search by an organization that rescues exotic animals also ended Friday.
Animal control officer Robert McClung went back to the foot of Cold Knob Thursday to check for the second time the night-vision camera. However, the brush and leaves used to conceal the camera’s enclosed box had been stripped away, leaving the box uncovered.
“When I checked the camera, the tape had been completely rewound,” McClung said. “When I reviewed the tape, there was only a completely white image on the tape, plus the footage of where I originally tested the machine.”
McClung said it appeared someone had tampered with the video camera, valued at over $5,000, and placed a white piece of paper over its lens and pressed the record button. The camera was otherwise undamaged, he said.
“That’s a possibility, but then again, no one is exactly sure what happened,” McClung said. “One of the laser centers about 40 feet away had also been moved, but I cannot say for sure whether an animal or something else moved it.”
McClung was accompanied Thursday by Jim Shortridge of Frankford, the man who claims to have seen the lion two weeks ago while bow hunting. Other leads on the big cat will be followed, but the video camera has been pulled from the woods, McClung said.
Shortridge said wild animals foraging for the 45 pounds of meat left to bait the lion could have also knocked over the camera box. All of the meat was gone Thursday, he said.
- - -
A second physical search of Cold Knob by Tiger Mountain Refuge officials also ended Friday. Team members from the Rainelle-based nonprofit which rescues exotic animals have spent the last seven days and nights camping out on Cold Knob, but came up empty.
John Forga, owner of the refuge, said he’s becoming more skeptical that the lion is in the area. No signs of the animal were seen or heard in the 168 straight hours of searching by his team. Forga wants to wait for more sightings of the lion before continuing his search.
“Lions are very vocal animals that can be heard from five miles away,” Forga said Friday. “I just don’t know if there is a lion in that area.”
Forga did point to one bright spot that’s occurred due to the media attention given to the lion story. On Friday, three unwanted alligators from Fayette County were delivered to his refuge in Rainelle. These new additions will be added to the three alligators already living there.
“Two of the alligators had been confiscated by Fayette County animal control and the third was brought in by a private citizen,” Forga said. “We also got a call from North Carolina from a person who wanted to give us a harlequin macaw, an exotic bird.”
— E-mail:
cgiggenbach@register-herald.com
esp