Eastern COUGAR REPORTS PLEASE GIVE YOUR IMPUT

[Deerqueen]

"Geographical Distribution
Historically, the Florida Panther occurred throughout the southeast United States, from Texas, Louisiana, and the lower Mississippi River valley north and east to the Atlantic Ocean, including Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and parts of Tennessee and South Carolina. Today approximately 70 panthers remain in parks and nearby private lands in southwest Florida. The Florida panther is one of the most endangered animals in the world. The only known wild breeding population occurs in south Florida within the Big Cypress Swamp region. Radio telemetry has also tracked panthers into locations ranging from the St. Johns River drainage from Okeechobee county south to Putnam county."

[buckhunter]

I hunt a lot in the state of Maine. Lot of wilderness. Have dog hunted bobcats. There are a lot of them there so I definately know what they are and how big there track is. Have seen what I suspect a cougar tracks cause of the size. Are they there, you bet. For some reason the Fish and Game people refuse to acknowledge they exist in the wild.

Have been videoed in Mass before however suspect they may have been pet that was released. Just don't know about that.

I hear of sighting from time to time buy have never seen one in the wild, just the track.

[barreledaction]

There have been black cougars here in Florida for many years. The state pet project is "panthers" and God help anyone found with one or tampering with one in any way.

[DaMadman]

Originally posted by Deerqueen
Skeeter..it may sound funny to you but one of the things I am most terrified of in the woods is a skunk!! One had me treed one day while bowhunting. It laid down at the base of my tree while I was up there in my stand..Those crazy things are not afraid of people..will run right up to you...and you never know if they have rabies or not!!!!

Rubicon I guess I'm not that KIND of a tree hugger...but I DO eat granola
I AM CERTAINLY NOT a PETA person...
I hunt and fish MAO, spend more days in the field than most anyone you know unless they are an outfitter...and probably have taken more deer than most of the guys you know (not trying to brag here...just proving a point). I am a SERIOUS OUTDOORS PERSON.
I have called myself a sportsperson and to that my significant other said " You don't see them selling sportspersons' licences, do you??!!!"..)since then I have called them sportspersons licences )
I am a treehugger too really and truely in the sense that I would do almost anything to keep these contractors from mowing down and tearing out our forrests and chopping up our big farms the way they are doing around here..In this area it has reached epidemic proportions...It is absolutely aweful the way they just bring bulldozers in and mow down everything. They don't consider the fact that someone might want to buy a lot with some older big trees on it. Some of the trees I recently watched them tear out were at least 200 years old (that is during the founding of our country, for CSakes!!) and they WERE healthy but now they are gone .
GREAT to hear about the cats, though..
keep it coming....................

You think it's bad in TN, you ought to come visit Maryland. I've seen more Farms and Wooded acres flat out leveled to the ground in the past ten years, Like you said 100-200 year old trees just layed over and burned up like toothpicks.
Makes ya wanna puke

[Contender]

I lived for several years in the low country of South Carolina in the mid 1980s. I drove a back road home late at night after work and I regularly saw bobcats and foxes. I saw coyotes twice and had a half grown couger cross the road right in front of me. I hit the brakes and turned to the side of the road to shine my headlights on the cat which had stopped about 30 yards off the road in an open field. I had no doubt what so ever of what I was looking at. When I mentioned it to a game warden a few weeks later he said that they had no cougers or coyotes either one in the area. Now 15 years later there are lots of coyotes there. What I found interesting about seeing the couger was that it was a half grown one. What does that say? Usually when animals are spotted that aren't in their normal range it turns out to be a male that went on a walk about searching for its own territory.