Mountain lions return to eastern North America

If they can avoid Cars and find suitable habitat they will be fine. A few breeding females start moving east and they have a real chance. Once a population takes hold, again provided they have cover, prey, and can avoid traffic...people will get used to them. The last step will be instituting sensible management policies that may include hunting...unless autos (Florida, plus the Christopher Columbus of Cougers in Connecticut) and State Wildlife Agents (California) are enough to keep the animals from overwhelming local tolerance for the big cats.
 
I'd like to point out that I live in Connecticut and can tell you that Cougars have been here for quite some time and are nothing new. The population began growing strong a few years back, the government just hasn't admitted it.

~Thylo:cool:
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I'd like to point out that I live in Connecticut and can tell you that Cougars have been here for quite some time and are nothing new. The population began growing strong a few years back, the government just hasn't admitted it.
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Really? Do you have any evidence? I do believe there are cougars in Connecticut, but I don't think there is a firm population of them. I think that most Cougars in CT are transients or escaped pets, and few, if any are permanent residents. Most cougar sightings reported in Connecticut are often just Bobcats or Domestic Dogs. I do believe, however, that there is a small but somewhat steady population in upstate New York and northern New England.
 
BeardsleyZooFan said:
Really? Do you have any evidence? I do believe there are cougars in Connecticut, but I don't think there is a firm population of them. I think that most Cougars in CT are transients or escaped pets, and few, if any are permanent residents. Most cougar sightings reported in Connecticut are often just Bobcats or Domestic Dogs. I do believe, however, that there is a small but somewhat steady population in upstate New York and northern New England.
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I can show you physical evidence myself but tracks have been found here and there and many people have seen the cats (mostly around the same area over the course of a few years suggesting that at least one made itself a permanent resident for a bit). My town, while large, is very well forested and you can find all sorts of large animals (Coyotes, American Black Bears, and even Moose) hiding in the woods around residential areas. The thing is, because of all the forested areas, it's very rare that a Human encounters any of these creatures so a large Cougar hiding out in the backwoods in and around my town is not that crazy of an idea.

~Thylo:cool:
 
My thoughts

In an issue of woods and water magazine, a game camera picture featuring a florida panther was published. What was interesting about the picture is that it was taken in Lafayette County, Florida, which is where my dad is originally from. The state game commission says that panthers are only found down in south Florida, but if that is the case, how come there is a photograph of a panther that was taken over 200 miles away from where panthers are only found in?
hunterhorn out
 
200 miles is a distance that a young male cougar looking for a home range without a resident male can easily cover in a few days. It`s far from surprising that the South Florida population starts dispersing now that the population is growing well after the release of the females from Texas.
 
Yeah it was politically motived in order to protect the Florida Panthers place on the ESL. Cougars are seen but the official story is always escaped pet or something. Eastern Cougars are very common. Also my area is being colonized by bears because of the overpopulation in the Smokies.
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I can show you physical evidence myself but tracks have been found here and there and many people have seen the cats (mostly around the same area over the course of a few years suggesting that at least one made itself a permanent resident for a bit). My town, while large, is very well forested and you can find all sorts of large animals (Coyotes, American Black Bears, and even Moose) hiding in the woods around residential areas. The thing is, because of all the forested areas, it's very rare that a Human encounters any of these creatures so a large Cougar hiding out in the backwoods in and around my town is not that crazy of an idea.
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As I have said, many Bobcats are mistaken for Cougars, and tracks can easily be misidentified, as well as sightings by the untrained eye. Also, if there is an established cougar population, there would certainly be roadkills, which is unheard of near where I'm around. I do think rural, less populated regions of northern New England and New York are home to a small population of Cougars, with available space and plenty of prey items. In fact, one fellow volunteer at Beardsley said that her relative works on a train in upstate NY, and he sees legitimate Cougars, actually waiting for deer to run across the railroad. I do think however, that in coming years, more legitimate Cougar sightings will pop up in southern New England and other areas on the East Coast.
I think one of the biggest problems in determining if cougars exist in the eastern U.S. is that the Cougar is one of the most elusive predators out there, and can be a few yards from you, and you'd never notice. They're extremely hard to track.
 
True - very elusive. The mountains surrounding Tucson (and even into the foothills were homes are) have a healthy puma population, but people almost never see them. So I would be dubious of any claims that people in Connecticut are seeing them all the time.

I have no doubt people see animals that they are convinced are pumas, just as I have no doubt campers in Washington see animals they are convinced are Bigfoot. That does not make it so. At my zoo, where we have a pair of black jaguars, I have had more than one visitor tell me they saw a black jaguar in the mountains just outside Tucson - even though black jaguars only occur in South America!
 
BeardsleyZooFan said:
As I have said, many Bobcats are mistaken for Cougars, and tracks can easily be misidentified, as well as sightings by the untrained eye. Also, if there is an established cougar population, there would certainly be roadkills, which is unheard of near where I'm around. I do think rural, less populated regions of northern New England and New York are home to a small population of Cougars, with available space and plenty of prey items. In fact, one fellow volunteer at Beardsley said that her relative works on a train in upstate NY, and he sees legitimate Cougars, actually waiting for deer to run across the railroad. I do think however, that in coming years, more legitimate Cougar sightings will pop up in southern New England and other areas on the East Coast.
I think one of the biggest problems in determining if cougars exist in the eastern U.S. is that the Cougar is one of the most elusive predators out there, and can be a few yards from you, and you'd never notice. They're extremely hard to track.
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Again, my area is a very forested area and sightings only happen maybe once every year or so.

~Thylo:cool:
 
vogelcommando said:
Intresting article :

The Return of the Florida Panther
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Definitely good news, although it will be interesting to see what happens when the panthers begin to spread further into more populated areas.

The Florida panther population was hybridized with western panthers to improve their genetics, right? So does that make it not a distinct subspecies anymore? I suppose it still is, since it's geographically isolated and has alleles that are absent in the western population.
 
I have heard many puma sightings in Ohio, mostly down south. It seems many animals are back on the rise in the area!
 
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