sighting in Indiana

[Emily]

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a ... /1152/NEWS

Cougar near Pine Village? Many have no doubt
By JOE LARSON
jlarson@journalandcourier.com

PINE VILLAGE -- When men working on a barn told Larry Cline that they saw a cougar on his property this summer, Cline didn't believe them.

Then he saw it for himself in early October. And now he has pictures.

"She got her camera," Cline said, referring to his wife, Vicki.

"I got my gun."

The pictures, which were taken Saturday afternoon on Cline's property about 31/2 miles west of Pine Village, are just blurry enough to leave room for argument. They seem to show a tan cat that stands above the tall grasses surrounding it.

By themselves, the photographs might not be persuasive, but there's no shortage of witnesses who claim to have seen a cougar in the area.

Pat Nern of rural Pine Village didn't believe there was a cougar in the area until she got a good look at it.

"We were laughed at at first when we saw him," Nern said. "Now that more people are seeing him, we're not being laughed at anymore."

If it is a cougar, no one is sure where it came from.

Jean Herrberg is assistant director of Exotic Feline Rescue Center near Center Point. She said a cougar escaped from the facility in January, but she doubts the animal in Cline's photograph is a cougar.

"We've looked at them very carefully and we just think it's a coyote," she said.

She has a hunch -- but no proof -- that the animal that escaped, a 70-pound female cougar named Donner, has already died. Pine Village and Center Point are about 80 miles apart.

Conservation Officer Matt Tholen of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources also has doubts about what exactly is shown in Cline's pictures.

"In my professional opinion, it's not a cougar," Tholen said. He said stories about large cats are not uncommon in rural Indiana, but he has never seen proof of cougars being near Greater Lafayette.

But to those who live near Cline's property, there's absolutely no doubt what the animal is.

Madlon Drayer lives next door to Cline. She said she and her husband, Mike, have both seen the cougar.

"It doesn't make any difference who believes us," she said. "We saw it and we know it's here."

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[Jamison559]

Sightings like these have been happening for a couple of years. Friends of mine have property that had a mt. lion footprint and they got pictures of it. Not too far from there, farmers say that had seen one. Definitely interesting, wonder where they could come from.