Supposed mountain lion sighting in South Jersey | Your comments

The DEP says it was probably just a house cat.

WINSLOW TWP. -- A hunter who supposedly captured a mountain lion or other "big cat" on photo and video probably just saw your average house cat, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Nevertheless, the sighting and warning from local authorities prompted plenty of responses from NJ.com readers regarding the possibility of such creatures wandering the woods of South Jersey.

- yoshootmeagain: "I saw a mountain lion about 12 years ago run across a golf course in that same area. My son saw it --it actually ran through the sand trap he was playing out of -- and another golfer's dad (it was a kid's tourney) saw it. When I contacted appropriate people, they just blew me off because, "We don't have big cats in New Jersey."

- piscatawaytown: "Trail cameras tend to stretch things sometimes. This looks like a stretched-out Jersey bobcat; the lower part of it's legs look darker almost spotted typical for Jersey bobcats. I saw a pair of Jersey bobcats in Piscataway about 30 years ago in the woods when I was hunting -- have not seen one since. There is no fame in faking this picture. It's probably real but what exactly it is, well that is up to everyone's opinions."

- eastcoast Ed: "I live in Sussex County and my wife almost hit a black one about six weeks ago near our home and reported it to [the DEP's division of] fish and game. It was also seen by a couple of others in the area."

Pedals the bear is probably dead

- Mary Lee: "Longshoremen along the Delaware River have been reporting bobcats (or lynx) for several years. And, about 20 years ago, my daughter and her boyfriend found a kitten along the Raritan River at Rutgers, in New Brunswick, distinguished by its large tufted ears, huge claws and long teeth. It looked and acted wild. Our vet told them to take it back where they found it and let it go, that it was a wild animal. They kept it for a few months until it became so wild and fierce that they had to release it."

- Jersey.Rotten: "Stuff like this really annoys me. First of all, it's obviously a domesticated cat and not a mountain lion. Mountain lion tails are much longer and thicker and do not terminate in a point. Second, this cat appears to be walking over a fallen tree. It is very easy to determine the size of the cat simply by measuring the diameter of the tree in question. In order for this to be a cougar, that tree would have to have a 3-foot diameter, which is highly highly unlikely. So all one has to do is go back to where that camera was set up, measure the tree and then compare that to the height of the cat. That tree is likely a tiny tree with a 12-inch diameter or less. Thus, it's a house cat."

- goldengrain: "There are just too many people. We breed and encroach on their territory. They have no choice but to be closer and closer to humans. We are ruining the entire ecology of the planet. We need fewer people. Nature usually does this with war or plagues and we are seeing some strange diseases surfacing lately."