I don’t think more unscientific scientists exist than the ones staffing state natural resource and game boards. I wouldn’t believe them if they told me raccoons existed while I was looking at one. (I’d have to just believe my own eyes.)

I said it on another thread. One thing I’ll never believe is an authority — particularly a scientific one, particularly a scientific political authority — telling me never.

Wonder how many Eastern lions there are? I’m guessing in the 500 – 1000 range. Minimum. Come up with a conservation plan already.

Although I will say this about their motivation to keep it quiet. Never overestimate the intelligence or the rationality of the public.

I guess, to do them credit, part of the secrecy on the part of official state agencies might have to do with wanting to have a management plan in place before announcing that pumas are “officially” part of their fauna again. And, just maybe, to prevent gung-ho Nimrods from going out to the forests and blasting away at everything that remotely resembles a puma before the puma population has an opportunity to increase. But maybe I am giving the agencies too much credit there.

I have not seen a mountain lion personally, but to be honest it wouldn’t surprise me if a breeding population exists in PA. I’ve heard of all sorts of sightings of both mammals and birds coming from the ‘black forest’ area of PA. And the Lenape have many interesting stories and folk tales about both natural and supernatural entities in the area.

It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, and something only city slickers will swallow.

In Appalachia, they KNOW that the cougars never went away. Maybe the wildlife folks think their denial’s protection. If so, it’s hard to understand why they’d claim it was just escaped or released cats.

Really!?

Supposedly the last puma was shot in Ontario around 1908; and (supposedly)none were seen again until around 1986, when they started showing up quite regularly on Manitoulin Island, on Lake Huron.

Although I lived in Toronto at the time, I subscribed to both Island newspapers by mail service; and I read with delight the articles on cougars that appeared with regularity for several weeks.

Then the articles suddenly ceased and no further word was heard for a good decade or more; as if a muzzle had been quietly applied.

Finally the Ontario government had to fess up and the public was ‘officially’ informed of the return of cougars to Ontario more than a decade later, some time around 1998.

It is also worth noting that our neighboring Province of Quebec, just east of Ontario, adopted the same ’silent treatment’ until cougars were likewise declared resident there around 2002.

I believe that government authorities tend to tread very softly on the cougar issue, in an effort to head off/muzzle dreaded public hysteria. Who knows where such a political directive would come from? I’m sure no officials would care to admit to it.

But I would point out that the reaction of the Manitoulin Islanders in 1986 was swift on behalf of the safety of their school children. Right away they began building enclosed shelters at the ends of their long rural driveways so that the children could wait for the school buses in safety, without fear of cougar attack. The ubiquitous presence of black bears and wolves in the same area since time out of mind had never before prompted the Islanders to build protective shelters for their children.

Since then the Province of Manitoba (west of Ontario) has also had to fess up. It now looks like cougars are pretty much ‘officially’ re-established throughout most of central Canada.

Therefore, I can’t think of one good reason why cougars would not have already re-established themselves as well, directly south of us, throughout central and eastern America.

But CAUTION – many of the authorities are still not ‘with the program’, so to speak.

As a case in point, last year I naively wandered into our metropolitan police station to inquire about predatory cat sightings in the area, some of which had made it into the local media news; one in particular with video. WOW! What a mistake that was!

The officer at the front desk shouted at me about as loudly as he could – so that everyone could hear – “Are you on crack?!! You must be on crack! Are you on crack”?

Suffice it to say that I departed hencewith forth forever with my tail between my legs.

Got cougars, you say? Just keep it quiet. Maybe they’ll just go away.