Possible sources of these animals include remnant natives, escaped or released captives, and colonizers from known cougar
populations in Florida and Texas. Since spring of 1998 at least 3 radio-collared Florida panthers have crossed north of the Caloosahatchee
River for the first time since fieldwork began 20 years ago. The potential for reestablishment of a viable breeding population is more
likely to be limited by human intolerance than biological constraints, especially in rural communities near public lands. An ecological
benefit of a cougar population in the east might be to return an evolutionary selection force and population check on over-abundant
deer. Outdoor recreationists and hunters are also likely to express interest in cougars.
Introduction
Native eastern cougars were believed extirpated throughout the east by the 1940s, but a growing number of sightings prompted the listing of
Felis concolor couguar on the 1973 Endangered Species List (Bolgiano, 1995). A field survey in the southern Appalachians by the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service (US F&WS), however, failed to find conclusive evidence of cougars by the early 1980s, although a small number of
possible deer kills, scrapes, and scats were identified. (Downing, 1981).
Confirmed field evidence began to accumulate in the 1990s. The presence of at least a few individuals living wild in the east is now
acknowledged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Clark, 2000). Issues of legal status, population viability, habitat management, and
human acceptance are emerging. The Eastern Cougar Foundation (ECF), a 501(c)(3) organization, was founded by independent researcher Todd
Lester in West Virginia in 1998 to compile the accumulating evidence, and to
work on these issues.
The ECF Board of Directors includes David Maehr, former leader of Florida panther field research; Donald Linzey, mammologist for the
All-Taxa Biodiversity Survey in Great Smokies Mountains National Park; Melanie Culver, cougar geneticist; and Sue Morse, who gave the keynote address at the Third Mountain
Lion Workshop in Prescott, AZ in 1988.
Methods of Collection Data
Todd Lester of WV and Donald Linzey of VA have for many years passed out flyers asking people to call them if a cougar was seen, so communication
networks were already established. Todd Lester expanded them through an eastern cougar web site and a listserv, which at times has included well
over 100 people from South America to Alaska. Lester and Linzey standardized the procedures they use to narrow the large volume of
sightings to the small percentage of credible prospects (Miller, 1998). For those within a day's drive, they conduct field searches for
hard evidence and scrutinize evidence collected by others. For more distance cases, one
or more of us investigates through phone and email interviews. Written confirmation from recognized authorities is the
only validation we accept. Melanie Culver at VA Tech tests samples and validates tests conducted by others.
Results
Over the past two years we have compiled one dozen confirmed incidents from Ontario to North Carolina, some of them representing clusters of
cougar activity (copies of any or all documentations are available from the ECF for the cost of photocopying and postage). Cases are categorized
by type of evidence.
In July of 2000, a cougar was killed by a train in western Randolph County, IL near the Mississippi River and the Shawnee National Forest.
A necropsy by Alan Woolf of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory at Southern Illinois University found a normal, healthy male aged 4 to 6
years belonging to the North American genotype, with normal claws, stomach contents of 100% fawn, and no tattoos. Most captive cougars are
declawed and/or have tattoos.
In 1998, a cougar pelt was found along a road in Texas County, MO, near the Mark Twain National Forest and approximately 125 air miles west
of the IL site. It is believed to be from a cougar that was treed and killed by rabbit hunters in 1994, the first cougar killed in MO since
1927. The MO DNR uncovered a photo of the dead cat and successfully prosecuted two hunters, who admitted dumping the pelt. Gary Cravens of
the MO DNR determined from witnesses that the hunted cougar had long, sharp claws and no tattoos. Genetic analysis of the pelt indicated a
North American genotype. In addition, in the same general area, a video of a cougar was made by DNR agent Jerry Elliott in 1996, and two deer
kills were confirmed as cougar kills by the DNR in 1998.
In 1976, a male cougar was killed while killing sheep and a pregnant female was captured two days later in Pocahontas County, WV. The dead
cougar was pictured in the local paper with WV DNR officer Larry Guthrie. The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Center in
GA found a parasite associated with captive cougars, and the animals were said to show no fear of humans. Through correspondence, the USF&WS
advised the WV DNR to release the pregnant female in the Cranberry Glades Wilderness Area, but the WV DNR asked the USF&W to come get the
cougar because they didn't want her, and no further documentation exists on the actual outcome (Lester, 1999).
There are four cases of scats:
In 1994, a scat recovered by agents of the VT Fish & Wildlife Dept. near Craftsbury in north central VT was sent to the USF&WS Forensics Lab
in Ashland, OR, where cougar foot hairs were found in it. These are presumed ingested during self grooming. The sighting that prompted the
search involved three cougars, and three sets of tracks were found, which could indicate a family group.
In 1997, a scat collected in central MA by John McCarter, a staff member of the Paul Rezendes Tracking School, was sent to George Amato of
the Wildlife Conservation Society in NY. DNA tests indicated cougar, a finding confirmed by Melanie Culver, who also found that the animal was
of the North American genotype. The large, wild Quahbin Resevoir area of central MA has for many years been a locus of cougar sightings.
In 1992 in central New Brunswick, Canada, Provincial wildlife biologist Rod Cumberland documented tracks and collected a scat that was
analyzed by the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and found to contain showshoe hair bones and foot and leg hairs of cougar.
In 1999 in Ontario, Canada, Provincial wildlife biologist Lil Anderson collected a scat that was sent to the Alberta Natural Resources
Service forensics lab in Edmonton for thin layer chromatography and found to be cougar.
There are three cases of tracks:
In 1990 in southwestern VA, Donald Linzey collected photos and cement casts of tracks that he confirmed as cougar. This is approximately 140
air miles from an incident in Russell County, VA in 1997, in which 25 goats were killed by an alleged cougar (not confirmed), and where
personnel of the VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries reported two separate cougar sightings, one of which included a kitten.
In 1994 in northwestern ME, approximately 150 air miles east of the confirmed New Brunswick site, two game wardens investigated a sighting
of three cats near the St. Johns River and found tracks which they officially reported as cougar to Richard Hoppe, wildlife biologist for
the ME Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
In 1996 in southern WV, approximately 100 air miles from the confirmed tracks in VA, Todd Lester made plaster casts of tracks that
were confirmed by Lee Fitzhugh of the Extension Wildlife Service at University of CA, Davis, and by David Maehr. This is an area with a
long history of cougar sightings and deer kills thought to be cougar.
There are two videos:
In the early 1990s in the western mountains of MD, a home video obtained and verified by Leslie Johnston, District Wildlife Manager of
the MD Dept. of Natural Resources, who made it available to MD public TV, where it was shown many times, and to various biologists' meetings.
There's no question the animal is a cougar.
In 1991 in NC just east of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a home video was obtained and verified by Donald Linzey. The Great
Smoky Mountains was one of the areas that Bob Downing, who did the US F&WS field survey mentioned earlier, felt could have supported native
cougars through the twentieth century, because roughly 20% of the park's 500,000 acres was never logged and remained an undisturbed refuge.
Discussions
Fail-safe chain of custody documentation for all evidence is impossible, and it is possible than one or a few incidents are forgeries. But it is
unlikely that all of them have been. Questions are shifting to:
1) whether these are escaped or released animals other than the native eastern cougar or Florida panther subspecies (Puma concolor couguar and Puma concolor coryi, the only ones listed in the Endangered Species Act); and
2) whether these are individual, transient animals or a breeding
population(s). The answer to the first question may never be resolved, because it appears to be impossible to define a genetic
profile for that subspecies, at least with present technology, and perhaps more importantly because of the extremely small sample size of
known eastern cougars. (Culver, 1999).
In addition to remnant natives and escaped/released captives, a third possible source is colonizers from known cougar populations in Florida,
Texas, and Montana, and suspected populations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (Anderson, 1983; Wrigley, 1982). Since spring of 1998, at
least three radio-collared Florida panthers have crossed north of the Caloosahatchee River west of Lake Okeechobee for the first time since
fieldwork began twenty years ago (Maehr, 2000). There is also evidence of increasing cougar activity in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and
other areas of the west that could indicate that cougars are reclaiming former ranges or even expanding into new areas (Henderson, 1992; Duggan,
2000; Pike, 1999).
The 1994 VT confirmation involved a possible family group, and New England, especially Maine, continues to report
sightings of mothers with kittens, some with field evidence awaiting confirmation. Although there are concerns about development of the
North Woods, at present there is a substantial amount of wild land there.
Conclusion
Given the well-known regrowth of forest cover and resurgence of deer herds across the east, it's likely that human rather than biological
constraints will limit the establishment of viable cougar populations. There is a potentially strong positive public reaction to the animals.
Fifty-six conservation groups across the east came together to endorse the recent ECF request that the USF&WS expand the Similarity of
Appearances rule of the ESA from Florida throughout the east (Lester 2000). That request was denied pending documentation of a breeding
population.
If viable cougar populations with their potential for depredations are to be tolerated,
much educational outreach remains to be done in rural communities, especially around public
lands. It may be possible to persuade hunters to accept cougar competition for deer, and simultaneously to reduce the possibilities of
cougar attacks on humans and livestock, by allowing non-consumptive chasing with dogs in restricted areas as a means of aversive
conditioning (Hebert, 1996). There may also be possibilities for future
ecotourism. Most importantly, a viable cougar population would return a native predator and offer ecosystem benefits such as an evolutionary
selection force and population check on currently over-abundant deer.
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