Pssst, have you seen a mountain lion in the wild somewhere east of the Mississippi River?
Of course you have, because what seems like a bazillion other people have seen one. Hunters, truckers, fishermen, farmers, good ol' boys never meanin' no harm. The reports are legion and often are related thusly:
— "It jumped on the road and stopped, looked at me, and then jumped across the ditch before I could get there to see it again."
— "I heard one scream like a woman being killed right behind me in the stand, so I ran to the truck but left my hunting backpack in the tree."
— "I saw it crossing the big field where my granny said she saw one 40 years ago coming out of the swamp. They live in there."
Or combine all those into something like, "I was driving past the big field and it jumped into the road, stopped and looked at me, then ran toward the big swamp where Granny said she saw one all those years ago. Then I heard it scream and I drove like hell to get out of there."
Are there mountain lions in states east of the Mississippi River? Sure, because they're migrating from the Midwest. Probably some are released or escaped. With that much land mass, river systems and movements of big cats, some are going to be sighted like this one in northwest Tennessee in 2015.
VIDEO: Mountain Lion, Humphreys County, Tennnessee, in 2015
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recently declared the eastern cougar extinct, saying the animal's removal from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Wildlife protection is warranted after decades without a verified sighting.
The subspecies originally was found primarily in the Northeast region of the U.S. and parts of Canada. They're family, so to speak, in a genetic way with other subspecies including the growing western cougar.
"Data from researchers, 21 states and Canadian provinces across the subspecies’ former eastern North American range indicate the eastern cougar likely disappeared forever at least 70 years ago," the USFWS stated in its announcement.
"While many suspected cougar sightings are probably mistakenly identified bobcats or other animals, cougars do occasionally occur in eastern North America, but they are cougars of other subspecies: either Florida panthers, animals dispersing from western populations, or animals that have been released or escaped from captivity," the announcement said. "The conclusions are based on a review of more than 100 credible studies dating back to 1900. Accounts suggest that most eastern cougars disappeared in the 1800s, killed out of fear for human and livestock safety and were victims of massive deforestation and overharvesting of white-tailed deer, the cougar’s primary prey."
The last known, verified sighting of an eastern cougar was in 1932 in Maine.
Questions will linger, though, with answers from the USFWS found here. Answers that many will dismiss, because like UFOs, Elvis' death and if Alexa is listening to us all the time (she says she isn't), people will believe what they believe.
