The Eastern Cougar mystery

My father used to sing an old folk song that included the lines,

Very next day, the cat came back
Thought he was a goner but the cat came back
‘Cause he couldn’t stay away…

The eastern cougar of the United States, believed wiped out in the middle of the last century, seems to keep popping up. In recent years, tracks, scat, and photo and video evidence have been added to the hundreds of sighting reports. There is, of course, the potential for confusion caused by escaped or released exotic pets, and some reports are no doubt mistakes involving dogs, but the idea that one or more relict populations of Puma concolor have hung on seems to be slowly gaining credibility.

According to a New Jersey paper, the Courier-Post, nine cougar sightings have made enough of an impression on the NJ Department of Environmental Protection that wildlife cameras have been set up to try to photograph the shadowy feline. Possible Eastern cougar sightings tend to rank low on the priorities of wildlife agencies, but two clear daylight sightings by police officers have made this case an exception. A DEP spokeswoman did caution, "At this point, no one from (the state) has confirmed a sighting.”

Meanwhile, at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, a spate of cougar sightings brought a news release from the National Parks Service, saying the events were being investigated and providing safety tips for people who encountered a cougar – just in case.