[SIZE=-1]WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT COUGARS IN THE APPALACHIANS[/SIZE][SIZE=-1] Cougars (Puma concolor) are also known as mountain lions, pumas, panthers, painters, and catamounts. They lived throughout the East when European settlers arrived. Many Appalachian stories tell of panthers following people, dropping on people from tree limbs, covering a sleeping person with leaves, and screaming like a woman being murdered.
By 1950, intensive hunting and logging had apparently exterminated cougars. However, people in remote parts of the Appalachians continued to occasionally report them. Reports increased over time and by the 1990s, hard evidence began to accumulate.
In 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analyzed a dropping found in Vermont as having cougar hair, presumably ingested during self-grooming.[SIZE=+0][SUP]1[/SUP][/SIZE] A home video taped in 1992 in western Maryland showed a cougar walking through the woods.[SIZE=+0][SUP]2[/SUP][/SIZE] Virginia Game Department personnel reported cougar sightings in southwest Virginia in 1995.[SIZE=+0][SUP]3[/SUP][/SIZE] A plaster cast of a track in West Virginia in 1998 was confirmed as cougar by a wildlife expert in California.[SIZE=+0][SUP]4[/SUP][/SIZE] Many credible sightings have also been made, but without supporting field evidence.
Some biologists and mountain people believe that a few native eastern cougars may have survived.[SIZE=+0][SUP]5[/SUP][/SIZE] In addition, there is evidence that cougars obtained elsewhere as pets have escaped or been released.[SIZE=+0][SUP]6[/SUP][/SIZE] State and federal wildlife authorities now agree that at least some cougars are living wild in the Appalachians, although the origin of these animals is uncertain.[SIZE=+0][SUP]7
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