Cougars are even in Palm Springs apparently. I was hiking at an Indian reservation there and came upon a sign which included mountain lions on a list of local fauna. I decided to get out of there!

However, despite this, numerous “black panthers” sightings have been reported in the eastern United States over the years.

In Adams County, Ohio, for instance, it is common knowledge among the people of the area that both black and tawny colored cats live in their woods. I had a college room mate whose friends purported to have video footage of a big black feline from the Davis Memorial State Preserve (a lovely little stretch of woods with amazing rock formations and tunnels carved out by the action of water), however I was never able to procur a copy.

This, too, has nothing to do with Maine. However I can verify that Adams County is rugged, rural country more than capable of supporting a puma population, and it is not alone in the East. Lots of areas have woods sufficient to support big cat populations, and, in fact, medium to large predators like the bobcat and coyote are quite common.

For those interested in “high strangeness” areas I’d suggest a visit to Adams County. In addition to reports of big cats, Adams county has reported hominoid/hominid activity, historic reports of giant snakes (it is also home of the amazing Serpent Mound effigy), and other non-cryptozoological mysteries, such as the church in Dunkinsville where a young girl was reportedly cured of an illness by an angel that left a burnt impression of itself on the outside of the church’s side door. I have seen this myself, and it is intriguing. However the church has reportedly been forced to remove the door due to continuing vandalism.

I also had a friend who collected some freshwater jellyfish (Craspedacusta sowerbii) from an Adams County farm pond.
It is an interesting area geologically too, with a couple of different soil types “butting against” one another, resulting in an abundance of pine and cedar in the more limestone rich soils in contrast to the broadleaf forest found in neighboring Scioto County’s Shawnee State Forest. This variety of habitat would seem to make Adams County a very attractive locale to a variety of critters and flora.

I thought I’d mention that even though this article is on cougars native to Maine.

There are reports of cougars on Mount Desert Island. I know several people who have spotted one in Acadia National Park. All the official public services toe the same line, “there hasn’t been a confirmed sighting in Maine sine the 40’s.” Now, I don’t know what the usual range of a mountain lion is, but Acadia has about 44,000 acres of protected national park land.

I built a house for a woman in Blue Hill, Maine (just down the coast about 10 miles by the crow flight) who has photos of one that frequented the area around her home. She claims that cougars are an accepted reality in her area.

Also, there is a funny urban legend circulating about the Acadia Zoo which has a cougar exhibit. The story goes that one late fall night about 5 years ago the county sheriff was called because a cougar was seen loose on the zoo grounds. He called the zoo’s currator who raced to the scene only to find her exhibit still caged. A deputy claims to have seen the uncaged cougar exit the property.

Again it’s all 2nd and 3rd hand information, but, it seems that there is at least smoke if not a fire here in Maine.

I think “officially” there are no cougars in Maine. Of course, this article is just one of many stories I have heard.

I work with a surgeon who had one cross his headlights while coming back from one of our rural hospitals last month.

State biologist Keel Kemper says 3 out of 4 cougar sightings in Maine are mistaken identification of white tailed deer.

Well, we know that’s true on Mt Hood . Yuk Yuk.

Rob Carignan
Portland, Maine