Since the mid-1960s, we have gathered considerable hard evidence of known or confirmed cougars/mountain lions in 14 of the 26 states east of the Mississippi River. The photographic evidence from area citizens and trained law enforcement observers proves big cats are continuing to present themselves crossing fields, pastures & roads in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
NOT one wildlife official in any of these states has ever claimed “they have known cougar or mountain lion populations within their borders”.
Recently, a retired USDA biochemist when reviewing an old 1950s map of the Mononglahela National Forest in West Virginia, found 61 reference listings to cougars, mountain lions, panthers or wildcats with names identifying creeks, runs, rivers, hollows, valleys, knobs or mountains. Sightings of the large cats mentioned continue to this day in the areas that note such names….a good indication, repeated generations of cougars have inhabited these localities since the days of the early pioneers or settlers.

http://www.mdc.mo.gov/landown/wild/nuisance/

“Deer, turkey, black bears and endangered species that are causing damage may be killed only with the permission of an agent of the department and by methods authorized by him/her. Mountain lions attacking or killing livestock or domestic animals, or attacking human beings, may be killed without prior permission, but the kill must be reported immediately to an agent of the department and the mountain lion carcass must be surrendered to him/her within twenty-four (24) hours.”

This was surprising: Pretty explicit for a govt that doesn’t believe it has a resident Mountain Lion population, huh? Page also mentions coyotes, deer, and feral hogs as nuisance animals.

Plus they like to attract hunters from all over–it’s the major tourist industry still. [Goose hunting used to be huge until the geese stopped coming here.]

I was not so much against hunting as wondering what the law is around here. If there are cougars and bobcats around here, there are not many, and I don’t want to hear about people just killing them because they might be dangerous. I’m sure an animal the size of Bigfoot [or the Murphysboro Swamp thing] could do serious damage to a human if cornered, and might eat cats, dogs or livestock, I’d hate to think of it being legal to kill one.

I will add that I live in central Alabama and that about 18 years ago our neighbor across the street claimed he saw a cougar drinking from the stream in his front yard early one morning and within the next few weeks I saw the backside of one disappearing in the brush behind our house heading up the hill late in the afternoon. We did call the Fish & Wildlife and a game warden came out and dismissed us both as loons. He claimed we were seeing coyotes or bobcats. Now, I may have been a teenage girl at the time, but I had been out in the woods with my dad and brothers enough to tell the difference between the tail of a mangy coyote and a cougar, much less a lil ole bobcat. This thing was bigger than our Irish Setter with a long “cat” tail, not a canine tail. Not a month later, my stepfather and I were fishing from the bank at a pond about 2 blocks down the road (late afternoon) and we heard it. (Again, I know what a bobcat sounds like and this was NOT a bobcat.) Some of the local guys that had livestock had some missing calves during that time and claimed it was due to a big cat. Eventually, it all stopped and we assumed the cougar moved on, but in all there were at least a dozen people that saw it that year and each time we were all told we were crazy. I quit roaming through the woods alone after that and always kept a rifle or sidearm with me when I took my horse out after that just to be safe.

I know too many hunters that claimed to have seen/heard them. My dad and his brother both have seen them on rare occasions when growing up when they were out hunting.

Loren, you do a wonderful job and it’s always a pleasure to stop by catch up on some interesting topics and conversations.

See http://www.cites.org/eng/com/AC/24/E24-18-02.pdf

The problem is deciding which animals are Eastern Cougars (of the protected subspecies) or dispersing / wandering cougars from western states.

There are armadillos as close as Cape Girardeau, but I don’t think they are going to cross the river barriers as easily as cougar and deer can. They seem to deal with cars very badly, even worse than possum. [To see a live possum around here is worth a mention; I counted 5 dead ones in a 3-mile drive to town.] They sure are cuter than possums, who come up on the porch and steal from the bird feeder and the cat food dish, and hiss dramatically at you if you try to stop them. They apparently also deliver deep bites to feral cats who get in their way.

So were the cougars killed in Randolph County and Chicago considered to be western or eastern cougars? They did not do genetic tests in 2000, but I thought they had info on the Chicago one, that he came from Minnesota?

Second @Shelley, that’s not necessarily true. MO has what is called a permissive hunting program which means if it has a season, you can kill it in season (e.g. deer, geese). If it doesn’t have a season, you can’t kill it (e.g. bear, armadillo). Which is pretty ingenious.

So I think killing cougars would carry a penalty there, and other permissive states. It’s funny permissive means the opposite in this case. I had permissive parents, I could only do what they gave me permission to do…

(There are armadilloes in South Central Missouri. My wife wouldn’t let me take a picture of the one we saw as roadkill near Bennett Springs!)