As a side note, there was a report of at least one mountain lion spotted moving out of the vast Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana when the area was flooded this past spring with water diverted from the Mississippi River. I can’t verify the sighting since I can no longer find the article about this when I do a Google search. The Atchafalaya Basin in south central Louisiana and the swamp area along the Pearl River in southeast Louisiana, between New Orleans and the Mississippi border, are probably the best areas and habitats in Louisiana where remnant populations of this big cat are likely to still exist.

Thanks for the info, I’m to contact them and see what I have to do.
The bison farm is off the lenox exit,a couple miles southwest of elk mountain ski resort.

Just wanted to add about the hairs, there not deer or bear for sure.They are long
and thin like cat hair and I looked at them under a microscope and compared them to
online photos of cougar under a microscope, they look similar but I don’t know enough to
find the differences between the two.

Just like add what happened , I had put up a green wire fence around my yard for my dogs.(my house is only about a 1/4 mile from where I had the 03′ sighting)
my yard butts up to a mountian that has thousands of acres of scrub brush, thickets, and no homes or buildings.
I came home and went to let the dogs out and saw the fence pushed down in a spot.
I went out in the yard and there was another spot pushed down in the same direction.
I started looking around and I found a couple of tracks and pieced together what happened. It went to run through the yard and couldn’t see the fence against the green grass,you can see it was just running and it’s belly landed on it and pushed it down like a u shape and the same where it exited the fence on the other side. I could see where
the front paws(print looked just like a cat print) landed in the yard.the fence was a little over 4 ft and the u shape was about half way down.
I stood back and you could see how it was moving,the stride was pretty far apart.
When I inspected the fence closer that is when I found the hairs on it.
I had a bear knock it down on a couple years before, it was so obvious it was a bear, the big tracks, and It looked like a drunk fell over it and swashed it to the ground, no grace involved what so ever.

I hope someone soon proves that there is a population that inhabits the Appalachians.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Lab in Missoula MT does the research. They however will not accept a sample from just anyone and they require you to use an established contact of theirs. They might be willing to provide a list of their approved partners and have a website about this.

On a personal note, I have spent some time in Lenox and that is land is beautiful. The bison farm (might not be Lenox yet close) is cool too.

I was talking to my doctor and he one 2 years ago on the same mountain range (about 20 miles north) he saw one crossing a road by a small field.

I have been running into a lot of local people that have been seeing them over the years.

In the early 80′s there was place in lenox, pa right next to I81 (you could see them driving by) that bred and raised them and were selling them as pets. I’m wondering if he had some escape or let some go when they made him close.

I have hairs that were stuck a wire fence that was knocked over that I would like to have them checked to see what they are, does anyone know where I could have this done with out costing a fortune?

Its not so much a coverup or conspiracy as its not organized, its just mutal people/organizations not wanting to deal with the consequences and therfore taking the same steps not to pursue/study the possibility of existing populations.

Cheers,
Mark

The article states that DNA from the Cougar in question was, in fact, an exact match for, “older samples — hair and fecal matter,” ALREADY IN the U.S. Forest Service’s Wildlife Genetics Laboratory database! Said genetic signature was, “first spotted in Champlin, MN, in Dec. ’09″ and “…biologists tracked him as he zig-zagged through Wisconsin, leaving behind a trail of paw prints, hair and poop.”

Clearly, the cat in question traveled from west to east. If claims of mystery DNA are now being “leaked,” it seems the burden of proof is on those proposing a native-eastern lineage for the animal.

As I mentioned in my earlier comment, until/unless the alleged “unknown DNA” can definitively be shown to be of eastern N.A heritage, the evidence points to a western immigrant. As such it would seem Occam’s Razor would apply regarding the cat’s origins.

Cougars have lived in the Eastern States since before Columbus arrived and they will continue to live here. Nature is resilient and even if you exterminate the native population, overflow from other populations (like Canada) will seep in to fill the vacuum, breeding with any remaining population. Look at the large amount of deer, rabbits, squirrels and other prey animals that litter our roadsides, you don’t think a large predator would notice this as well? If our cars are passively finding these prey animals then I can promise you a predator actively hunting these animals would be well fed and the populations will quickly soar. The fact that we are seeing so many reports of Cougars leads me to believe their numbers HAVE already risen and we are now seeing the ones who are being pushed to the outer edges of their normal hunting grounds.

To my mind there are really 2 viable explanations. 1] This is a native Eastern Cougar and they have always remained here. or 2] This is an overflow from either Canada or Mid-West that has migrated to Eastern States and bred with remaining populations, which means with the stated DNA this animal would have to be the OFFSPRING of an original migratory animal.

Maybe I’m just feeling a bit cranky today, but… why couldn’t the Connecticut cougar be merely “an escaped pet from a mixed breeding captive background?”

Until/unless researchers can identify the source of the other 1/3 of the cat’s genetic heritage, it is impossible to state with any certainty that it is(was) indigenous to the northeast.

While the unknown portion of its DNA is intriguing – and its fun to speculate about “home-grown” scenarios – without a valid “local” specimen to compare it to, the CT DNR’s supposed origin-theory-in-the-making is, unfortunately, as good as the other.

We can’t accuse the other side of assuming too much if we’re guilty of the same!