Interesting sight.

[Ky hills]

I have seen two mountain lions in my life, both along my driveway. Both were young, smaller than adult bobcat, but had a tail as long as their body.

Arkansas Game and Fish denied the existence of them up until a few years ago. I was told by a wildlife biologist that the reason was, they’d have to create a management plan for them.

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea that a remnant population has managed to survive among us. When I was in junior high, I found a book in the library entitled “Ghost of North America” (or similar), probably published in the ‘50s or ‘60s, that describes the author’s studies concluding that cougars had adapted to the more populated eastern half of the states, by becoming mostly nocturnal.

There is an acknowledged population in Florida. I also believe it’s very possible that there could be small populations of mountain lions throughout the east and especially in the Appalachian mountains.
All of my life I’ve heard stories about them from many people, including some that I know are credible people with no reason to tell a tale.
One person swears he saw one on his farm. Another man that lived in a mountainous area said he saw one crossing a mountain road in front of his car as he was going to work just before daylight. He described it as being very big and long bodied with a real long tail and he described it effortlessly jumping up onto the hillside at the side of the road,
I do believe a lot of the sightings are indeed mistaken and actually either bobcats or big house cats, but I and many others believe these mountains hold many other secrets. We were seeing bears years before they were admitted to.

 

[Travlr]

There is an acknowledged population in Florida. I also believe it’s very possible that there could be small populations of mountain lions throughout the east and especially in the Appalachian mountains.
All of my life I’ve heard stories about them from many people, including some that I know are credible people with no reason to tell a tale.
One person swears he saw one on his farm. Another man that lived in a mountainous area said he saw one crossing a mountain road in front of his car as he was going to work just before daylight. He described it as being very big and long bodied with a real long tail and he described it effortlessly jumping up onto the hillside at the side of the road,
I do believe a lot of the sightings are indeed mistaken and actually either bobcats or big house cats, but I and many others believe these mountains hold many other secrets. We were seeing bears years before they were admitted to.

I saw a wolverine in Utah where the DNR claimed there were none. There had been an old male in the Uinta Mountains for a long time but they never saw any females and they hadn't seen the old male for several years so they thought he was dead. I reported my sighting and they acted like I was mistaken... and a couple of weeks later they caught the wolverine on a door bell camera and suddenly they got interested.
It would be difficult to confuse a mountain lion with a house cat/bob cat no matter how large the house/bob cat was. A small cougar is three times larger than a really massive house cat.

 

[Ky hills]

I saw a wolverine in Utah where the DNR claimed there were none. There had been an old male in the Uinta Mountains for a long time but they never saw any females and they hadn't seen the old male for several years so they thought he was dead. I reported my sighting and they acted like I was mistaken... and a couple of weeks later they caught the wolverine on a door bell camera and suddenly they got interested.
It would be difficult to confuse a mountain lion with a house cat/bob cat no matter how large the house/bob cat was. A small cougar is three times larger than a really massive house cat.

I can say from personal experience that distance and size perception can play a role in misidentification. I was very surprised one day when I thought I’d seen a big cat from a distance, through binoculars I clearly saw it was a big house cat.
I did have an experience one evening while traveling in an adjoining county, where I still know in my mind what I saw.
We all hear stories about people seeing black mountain lions all throughout Appalachia. Science says it’s never been recorded as being a possibility.
Around 25-30 years ago I happened to look over from a low bridge over a very big creek that is actually as big as some small rivers in places. My first thought was oh there’s a black Labrador. The more I looked it was no dog, very feline in look, build, walk, tail characteristic. I was closer than the aforementioned housecat. I could see the shoulder’s moving as it walked. Was it some kind of big cat that somehow whether brought in illegally and released or a terribly erroneous misidentification, I can’t say for absolute certain, but from my vantage point I was thinking I was seeing somewhat accurate scale to nearby objects.
Here is a fb video of a local man that does nature survival training. His father is a friend of mine.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BNuEdDgmf/?mibextid=wwXIfr