This is a quote from a National Wildlife Federation article on eastern pumas:

“Among the more mysterious of these was an 8-pound cougar kitten struck and killed by a motorist in June 1997 in Floyd County, Kentucky. The carcass was turned over to state wildlife department officers, who found various telltale signs that it had been a wild cougar—all claws intact, no tattoos or tags, no collar. Even so, the examiners concluded the animal was probably from domesticated stock.”

The kitten’s DNA indicated a mixture of South American genes (which are usually assumed to be from “pet” pumas) and North American genes - usually thought to indicate a truly wild puma. The kitten had its full set of claws (which had not been clipped), no tattoos nor collar marks, and no indication of anything other than a wild diet in its stomach. The young man whose vehicle struck it said that he glimpsed another small puma, and a big one, with the kitten. Despite that, which suggests to me that pumas are living wild and breeding in eastern Kentucky, state wildlife personnel who examined the kitten’s body concluded that it must have come from “domestic stock”.

There is definitely an attitude of denial among most state wildlife agencies when it comes to pumas. Almost to a person, they refuse to even entertain the possibility that pumas could be repopulating their historic range in the Appalachians. I believe otherwise.

I’ve always heard the stories of ‘panthers’ in ky. Especially from coon hunters who are out all night in the woods.

I know they are here; I’ve seen one and I know several other reliable, observant people who have also seen them. There has been sporadic evidence too: for instance, the puma kitten that was struck and killed on the highway in Floyd County, and the recent sightings near Mammoth Cave, the Land Between the Lakes, and the Cincinnati/Covington area. It hasn’t been enough to “officially” confirm the pumas’ existence, but I’m confident that that day is approaching.

More and more people are setting up trailcams and other types of camera traps, and it’s only a matter of time. The pumas are there, and sooner or later one will trip a camera.

* Florida panther aside, I believe there are accepted pumas up in Ontario and maybe points further east in Canada.