Mountain Lion Hoax

DNR takes teeth out of mountain lion report
By Prentiss Findlay (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Rumors of a mountain lion in Saluda County have spread so fast that on Monday the state wildlife department issued a statement saying it’s all just an Internet hoax.

The bogus big cat alert says that a driver, “Wally Tiernan,” hit the lion east of Greenwood, and a neighbor called the state Department of Natural Resources to put the severely injured creature down.

The DNR released a copy of the mountain lion e-mail that caused such a fuss and sparked dozens of calls and e-mails to the agency. The e-mail says in part, “A landowner believes this is the same lion he had seen a week earlier dragging a 320-pound steer out of the pasture. This lion weighed 260 pounds, while most mature male mountain lions weigh 80 to 150 pounds. We have seen evidence of their presence through tracks in the dirt but had no idea this big guy roamed around here!”

DNR public relations specialist Brett Witt said, “No officer or any other personnel from DNR in Region 3 (which covers Saluda) or any other region in South Carolina has received a call or dealt with any mountain lion.”

A wild mountain lion or cougar has not been documented in South Carolina in many decades. The only possibility of such an animal would be an escaped “exotic” pet, according to the agency.

“The photo that was attached to the e-mail was also a giveaway,” says DNR Furbearer Project supervisor Jay Butfiloski, “It appears to be taken in a taxidermy shop out West due to the types of animals mounted on the walls.”

The story has been making the rounds in other states, too, including reports of a mountain lion in Kentucky, Arkansas, Virginia, Wisconsin, Texas, Pennsylvania and Mississippi. The web site Snopes.com, which specializes in deflating Internet rumors, said the dead mountain lion photo circulating with the hoax was actually from northern Arizona where a truck driver hit a big cat late last year.

“As typically happens with Internet-circulated photos of killed or captured animals, the accompanying text was altered multiple times to place the mountain lion in a variety of locales,” Snopes states.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@ postandcourier.com