We AIN'T got no stinkin' cougars in Georgia!!!!!!!!!!

[Steve Kendrot]

Speaking as a professional biologist, I have to admit that I have a natural skepticism towards most wildlife reports I get from members of the public. I once was told by a woman that a nutria lived in the field behind her piedmont Maryland subdivision... it was so big she thought it was a bear at first. It was of course a woodchuck. I worked in the Adirondack Park in NY and throughout the northeast on wolf recovery and education issues for a couple years in the late 1990's. I heard more wacky wildlife reports and conspiracy theories than I can remember. NYDEC trading turkeys for coyotes to control the deer herd, dropping wolves out of helicopters (black of course), and "packs" of black panthers taking down deer in main street of Star Lake, NY.

Whether they love them or hate them, people are fascinated by large carnivores, and those that believe themselves fortunate enough to have seen one hate to have this romantic image dashed by a skeptical biologist, such as myself, who is right 99 out of 100 times. To these people, that one time that a cougar actually winds up dead on a road or in some hunters pickup means that the other 99 times the biologist was wrong. Never mind that there are dozens of explanations for the appearance of an actual cougar that are far more likely than the presence of a thriving, reproducing population. Collared cougars have been documented traveling over 700 miles, thus explaining some of the appearances in midwestern states in the past decade. A florida panther dispersinig to GA is not impossible, but probably far less likely than an abandoned "pet". Do a google search for "pet cougar" and you will see they are far more common than you would imagine and why they would be turned loose to fend for themselves. Even if it was a bona fide wild cougar, one dispersing cougar does not a population make.

My childhood neighbors keep telling my folks there is a cougar in the area (near Binghamton, NY). While I have seen the return of bobcats and bears to the area since I left home in 1989, until I see a cougar with my own two eyes, I won't believe it. I grew up with these people.

I guess the bottom line is, if you have a sighting and want to be taken seriously, expose yourself to the same scrutiny biologists endure. Submit your evidence for a rigorous review (http://www.easterncougarnet.org/cougarconfim.htm) and be prepared to accept the outcome, even when its less than exciting.

[Bjorn]

[Hooked]

They said the same thing about deer in Kansas when my wife's dad was a kid.  He says if you saw one you didn't tell anybody because no one would believe ya.

Hope the cougar population doesn't explode like the whitetails did!!!!!

[Brian Krebs]

Bjorn- whoa ! Two of them? cool x 2 !! And the black panther in the tree- well- how many saw that? LOL

 I live in cougar country - I found tracks in my driveway the other day ....so they are here !

 I have seen them around here; there is an over the counter tag for them....but I have not seen one in a long long time.

 Cats are preditors- and they walk around looking where they are going; and don't stop and feed with their heads down.

 They are very most likely to see you first; and slip out of sight.

 And when a state acknowledges there is the presence of a mountian lion; they have to come up with a game management plan. $$$$ and more worries.....better just to deny it ( did this in Michigan too).

[Dave Bulla]

Steve Kendrot,

I hear ya.  However.... I don't place the same credibility on the claims of houswives and suburbanites as I do on hardcore hunters.  Hunters who KNOW what they are talking about and who spend lots of time in the woods can't be lumped in with the same people who learn animal identification by watching Disney movies.  Basically, always consider the source...

[Kingwouldbe]

Bjorn, to funny, got a pic of this one last week.
 

[Sharpster]

Originally posted by Dave Bulla:
Steve Kendrot,

I hear ya.  However.... I don't place the same credibility on the claims of houswives and suburbanites as I do on hardcore hunters.  Hunters who KNOW what they are talking about and who spend lots of time in the woods can't be lumped in with the same people who learn animal identification by watching Disney movies.  Basically, always consider the source...

Exactly what I was thinking Steve!

I was bowhunting deer and pigs in the everglades once and after dozing off for a couple of minutes in my tree stand, I awoke to find a huge florida lynx staring up at me from the base of the leaning tree I was in. I had never seen one before, heck I didn't even know that there were lynx in Florida before this happened but, I sure knew exactly what kind of animal I was looking at!  

Ron

[Ray Hammond]

Steve,

Speaking as a non- biologist, but also as a person who did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a couple months ago, I am highly qualified to say- THE FREAKIN'THING WAS SHOT- IT'S DEAD- IT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF GA AS A COUGAR.

There doesnt need to be any scrutiny.... in this case. But as you can see, they continue to discredit its existence with the story about its footpads being worn down on concrete.

Sort of reminds me of the wolf expert who met with sheep ranchers in Wyoming in a town hall meeting to discuss how they were going to control the wolves killing sheep through contraception.

An old grizzled rancher stood up and said, "Son, I don't think you understand. The wolves aren't trying to @#$rew our sheep, they're eatin' em!"

Budgets, economic interests, social interests and political bent all cloud the comments, attitudes, and the "effluence" coming out of so many scientists' mouths so often I have come to trust them and their statements about as much as I trust my congressman, senator, and local county commissioner to do what's right instead of what will get them reelected.

[Ronald E. Harris]

I live in Texas, halfway between Dallas and Houston, halfway between Waco and Tyler.  In 15 years of living here have personally seen 6, including one last weekend dragging a yearling deer across a ranch road (5 miles west of Corsicana, Navarro county).  Wondered why we haven't seen a deer for at least 2 weeks on that side of the ranch.

Ron

[Tom Leemans]

We don't have any cougars, but we do have wookalars.

[Joey Ward]

Wow, I had no idea Georgia had a season for mountain lion. Good for them.

If he'd shot that lion here in Alabama, he'd most likely would've lost his hunting rights for life. Not to mention the huge fine.

Come to think about it, maybe that's why no one in 'Bama has admitted to shooting one.   :p

[Biggie Hoffman]

All the Alabama guys are watching football this year.........

[David McLendon]

Now doesn't that add a whole new feeling to walking through the pre-dawn Georgia woods with nothing but a short sharp stick? Just a little more exciting than kicking up a mean hog in the dark. There is a certain feeling you get when you look at a brown bear or a shark who is looking at you, now we don't have to travel so far to feel like an appetizer.

[Joey Ward]

There's probably four or five of us that ain't.

War Eagle, baby!

  :D

[JAG]

Take it to 'Em, Joey!

[Kirk32256]

The say the same thing here in SC, from last winter to this fall I have seen or heard them 5 times, found scat and tracks.  I have several neighbors who have seen them and or heard them, one almost hit one with their Truck.  DNR says they don't exist so I guess we are imagining this, or we need good anti psychotics!!!  There have been several caught on game cameras about 50 miles north of here so how hard would it be for them to move from NC to SC or GA?

Kirk

[recurvericky]

I recently saw a Discovery Channel special that stated jaguars are now living in Southern Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Per the show jaguars were wide spread in the southwest in the late 1800's until they were killed out by ranchers. They even had trail cam pictures of the jaguars.

[JC]

Originally posted by Joey Ward:
War Eagle, baby!

Just like an Alabama school: can't even get the mascot right...it's either an eagle OR a tiger...not both!  :p

[HATCHCHASER]

Tell em what I said JC...    

I think it is obvious that we have big cats.  I have lived in north GA and western NC most of my life I know an old man that has a black "paanter" skin hanging in his barn.  He killed it when he was young in the mtns. of Robbinsville, NC.  I have heard countless stories of encounters.  I have yet to see one, but I fully beleive most of the stories.

It is probably best if they don't become recognized cause they'll just raise liscense fees to cover the protection costs.  Just my 5 cents.

[Rick McGowan]

I have to go along with Steve on this one, people even "experienced hunters" see what they want to see. There was a SERVAL cat caught in Atlanta earlier this year, video of it runing around Buckhead and getting netted was on the news, NO-ONE admitted to releasing or owning it, maybe it snuck in on a flight from Africa, I don't know. The fact is that if someone is in illegal posession of an exotic animal, they aren't very likely to admit it. A couple years ago, here in the Atlanta suburbs there was big news about a "confirmed bobcat sighting" and people panicking that it would eat their children and pets, the DNR was shown carrying a live trap big enough for any black bear to the sight. The video of that "bobcat" was also on the tv, it was a TABBY cat, I figured that out in about two seconds, but apparently the DNR didn't see the video or can't tell a housecat from a bobcat or just set the trap to make people happy. I was hunting with a good friend of mine and an "experienced hunter", in good light and in the open and broadside he saw a "mountain lion", I got there a few minutes after the sighting, he couldn't tell me if it had a long tail or short or what color it was or if it was spotted or mottled or all one color, but he was positive it was a "mountain lion", twice I have been threaten with physical violence, because I doubt someone when they saw dead "mountain lions" on the side of the road in GA, in both cases the persons that saw them KNEW ANIMALS and got a good look and it was positively a mountain lion! One was a dead dog and the other was a dead coyote and this is with animals in the open in good light and not moving. I have seen for years on the internet "confirmed" photos of mountain lions taken in various eastern states, and I do mean various as some of these "confirmed" photos have the same photo being attributed to a half dozen different states.
Actually if you do a bit of browsing, you will find lots of "confirmed sightings of BIGFOOT too. Does anyone remember a couple months ago and all the national attention the the "bigfoot" being found in north GA? There was a "confirmed" cougar road killed in Michigans UP a couple years ago and was on the front page of the paper and everything, there was a lot less publicity about it turning out to being a prank. I was riding in a pickup with two of my VERY experienced hunting buddies in Michigan, I was looking to the side, when an animal ran across the road directly in front of the vehicle, they both got a good view of it, I didn't see it at all, one of them saw "an eight point buck" the other saw a "black bear". Try interviewing people over something they just saw, I had two people who were standing in the same place and saw the hit and run accident and one was positive it was a red car and the other one was equally positive it was a green car. In other words, eyewitness sightings are nearly worthless and even things that are "confirmed" are frequently wrong. There is no doubt in my mind that people bring animals home, alive or dead, that they aren't supposed to have and then dispose of them or try to find a way to explain why they have it, not saying that is the case this time, but it has happened. And I can say from several personal experiences that most of the stuff in the news is largely fiction created by newspeople trying to make themselves important.