news-record.com

You might have seen it.

It's a photo making the rounds on the Internet that purportedly shows a mountain lion dragging a deer in western North Carolina.

The photo is real (click here to see it). But the location is wrong.

It was taken by a trail camera in south Texas, where mountain lions are common.

But not here.

The photo has drawn so much attention that it prompted the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to send out a press release today.

"There is no physical evidence to support the existence of a wild mountain lion population in North Carolina," the commission said in the release.

The photograph has been circulating mainly via e-mail in the western counties of the state.

Some report it was taken in the Marion area. Others say it was taken in Old Fort or Burnsville.

"It is one of several mountain lion hoaxes that have circulated through several states in the past few weeks, and the e-mails in each state claim that the photograph was taken locally," according to the resources commission.

There have been at least three mountain lion hoaxes in recent years.

In those cases, the same photographs are passed around by e-mail and cell phone with text claiming that the photographs were taken locally.

One hoax involves a photograph of a man posing with a dead mountain lion.

The mountain lion was actually killed by a vehicle in Arizona. The man in the photograph is an Arizona public safety officer.

Another is a series of photographs showing a mountain lion on a porch. But the home is actually in Wyoming.

In North Carolina, the only mountain lions that have been recovered in the past 50 years were two adults that were shot and killed at a trash bin in eastern North Carolina in the 1980s, according to the resources commission.

Two animals had identification tattoos, indicating they were illegally held captive. They either escaped or were released.