Cougar Spotting
By KEVIN COOLIDGE

The morning mountain air filled my lungs as I hiked along the trail. A burst of purple caught my eye. It was the state flower of Colorado, the Columbine. I knelt down for a closer look. As I did, a tremor ran through me; something wasn’t right. A gentle breeze stirred the trees. I thought maybe a cold front was moving in, and it was time to head back. But as I turned to go, I saw a flash of movement, a mountain lion! I couldn’t believe my luck. Many people never even catch a glimpse of a mountain lion in the wild.

The mountain lion (Puma concolor), has received a plurality of names, as few other mammals have, as well as hundreds of Native American names to correspond with the diversity of their culture. When European settlers first reached North America’s shores, cougars were plentiful, but by the beginning of the twentieth century, the large, feline predator had gone the way of the bison and timber wolf.

I became interested in the eastern cougar after watching Kerry Gyekis’s presentation, “The Eastern Cougar, What is Real and What is Not.” To begin with, there is no such an animal, at least as a separate or sub species. Colorado’s mountain lion is the same animal we’d call a “painter” in Tioga County.

I remember my grandfather telling me about panthers screaming in the night on Maple Hill here in Tioga County. Sightings continue to this very day in the Pennsylvania Wilds. But are people really seeing cougars? Often, we see what we want to see. I had the privilege of seeing a mountain lion in Colorado, and I’d love to see one here in the East, but have they really been sighted here? Tracks of the common canine or the coyote are often mistaken for that of a cougar.

A cougar has retractable claws, which seldom show in the print, but on slippery ground the claws emerge, seeking purchase. The cougar tracks can also be obscured with “direct register,” or putting a hind track into the front track. More must be taken into account than just the track, such as stride length and heel-pad shape. Often, people think the cougar is bigger than it really is. It’s not uncommon for people to mistake a bear print for a cougar print, which would make for one big cat.

Unfortunately, there are the hoaxes. Gyekis shows a photo of a cougar peering in through a window, another of the 210-pound “Harrisburg Game Lands” cougar, and even a cougar-killing mule. All have proven to be hoaxes. People have even purchased molds of real tracks and planted false evidence.

So, is the cougar in the east? I recommend reading The Eastern Cougar: Historic Accounts, Scientific Investigations, and New Evidence. Editors Chris Bolgiano and Jerry Roberts seek to answer this question and it’s a book that Gyekis also recommends. 

This anthology brings together accounts from early explorers and present-day researchers, considers the evidence in the wild cougar controversy, and examines the social and environmental implications of recovery. The book is divided into three parts.

The first contains historical references and accounts of settlers’ interactions with the cougar, as well as defining what an eastern cougar actually is. Many settlers mistook the large cat  for the African lion. The cougar has the largest range of any large cat, and though the cougar is usually lumped in with the larger cat species, the cougar is distinct in that it cannot roar and makes vocalizations much more common to small cats.

The second part covers evidence of the cougar’s reappearance from sightings, tracks, scat, and DNA samples. Do many eyewitnesses prove cougars are here or is more scientific evidence required? One of the great things about this book is that the reader doesn’t need an advanced degree in biology or zoology to understand, appreciate, and learn from this information. Even the most intimidating article title, “Genetic Variation, Gene Flow, and Population Identification for North American Pumas,” by Melanie Culver, the premier cougar DNA research expert, has been written in terms laymen can understand.

The third part discusses whether the eastern cougar can make a comeback. Unassisted recolonization by a large predator is unusual. Can cougars successfully reestablish viable, long-term breeding populations in the East? The answer is a tangled web of biological, legal, environmental, and even social issues.

The nine-page essay by David Maehr titled “Can the Florida Panther Provide Insight Into Restoring the Eastern Cougar?” is a very balanced piece that seems both skeptical and hopeful. Maehr, professor of forestry at the University of Kentucky and Eastern Cougar Foundation board member, briefly discusses some of the more complex issues and helps put the whole subject into perspective.

So, is this great native cat of America still in existence? The saying goes, “extinct is forever.” I certainly hope to be able to see a cougar in the East one day. If this feline predator were to fade into the mists of history, I feel we would lose something of what we are, that little piece of wildness that feeds our spirit and dreams. I personally feel that the eastern cougar is alive and well, if only in our hearts and imagination and not the deep woods.

For further reading of mountain lions and men:

The Eastern Cougar Foundation: www.easterncougar.org

The Beast in the Garden: The True Story of a Predator’s Deadly Return to Suburban America by David Baron

People and Predators: From Conflict to Coexistence by Nina Fascione
Stalked by a Mountain Lion: Fear, and the Uncertain Future of Cougars in America by Jo Deurbrouck

Soul Among Lions: The Cougar as Peaceful Adversary by Harley G. Shaw

Kevin Coolidge is the co-owner of From My Shelf Books on Main Street in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.