Local News
Reported Cougar Sightings Keep Kids Away from a PA Playground
By Associated Press
Apr 9, 2004, 12:59pm

CANTON, Pennsylvania (AP)- School officials in this Bradford County community are keeping pupils away from a playground because of multiple reports of a mountain lion sighting.

Jerry Feaser, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said Friday that wildlife officers in the area were investigating the claim.

"At least three credible people saw the mountain lion," Canton schools superintendent Robert Jannone said Thursday.

School officials said two people have reported seeing a mountain lion within 100 yards of Canton Elementary School, which has a playground surrounded by a chain-link fence.

The last Pennsylvania mountain lion to be killed in the wild was shot in the 1880s, and despite frequent reports of mountain lion sightings across the state, none since then has ever been confirmed.

Feaser said Bradford County has a relatively high population of bobcats, and that from a distance or in twilight bobcats often are mistaken for mountain lions.