Panther, mountain lion, catamount, screamer, puma, cougar, painter – folks cannot come to a consensus on what to call the cat that once roamed all of North America.
But call them what you will, in western North Carolina, just do not call them extinct.
Last year, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ended its 7-year-long investigation into the Eastern cougar by designating the animal officially extinct, explaining that “data from researchers across the subspecies’ former eastern North American range indicate the eastern cougar likely disappeared forever at least 70 years ago.”
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission went a bit further, claiming that “by 1900, the Eastern cougar was extirpated throughout the state of North Carolina.”
Yet many North Carolinians have a major issue with these declarations, evidenced by the number of sightings of the cat in what scientists consider to be its “former” range.
One mention of the Eastern cougar on social media will trigger a blizzard of firsthand accounts, usually passionate but anecdotal, testifying to the panthers’ continued residence of our state. Such sightings are so common that scientists gave them a nickname: UFOs, or Unidentified Furry Objects.
The Commission explains the sightings away as cases of misidentification or pet cougars who have escaped or been released.
However, the State of Tennessee’s Wildlife Resources Agency tells a slightly different story, first claiming that “there haven’t been any cougars in Tennessee since the early 1900s,” before listing 10 confirmed sightings in the western part of state in the years 2015 and 2016.
“The cougar may be coming back to Tennessee,” the agency said.
The documented expansion of cougar territory from western states is well-documented, however, according to Tennessee’s WRA, “This expansion does not equate to population establishment. Population establishment only occurs when reproducing females are documented. Considering that there are large expanses between Tennessee and the established populations, it will likely be a long time before cougars make their home here.”
There is controversy among scientists as to whether the Western cCougar, Eastern cougar and Florida panthers are actually distinct subspecies. Historically, there were 11 subspecies of cougar, but those designations were based on reports from the 1700s that focused mostly on appearance.
According to National Geographic, “Advances in genetic testing have proven that these differently named American cats are genetically the same,” meaning that the distinction among Western, Eastern, and Florida cats is simply a matter of geography, not genetics.
If cougars continue to repopulate from the west, the Tennessee Agency predicts that a breeding population of the cats could be established in 25-30 years.
Though removed from the Endangered Species list in 2015, the cats, should they exist, are protected as a non-game species in both North Carolina and Tennessee. It is illegal to shoot or otherwise harm the non-existent cougar in either state.
If a reader should encounter one of these cats, which have been extinct for nearly a century, the rules of engagement are clear: stay calm, don’t approach the animal, don’t run and don’t crouch down or bend over. It might help to keep in mind that in the past 100 years, there are only 125 attacks, with between 10 and 27 of those reported as fatal.
In that time, of course, humans managed to eliminate or nearly eliminate the entire mountain lion population east of the Rocky Mountains.