[Jimmy Valentine]

Back here in Maryland/Virginia we have had a bunch of sightings but the Fish and Game people won’t admit to it

The Allegheny mountains are like a highway for bears cats etc and they can travel from Maine to South Carolina pretty much as they wish

[Smokin' Joe]

Back here in Maryland/Virginia we have had a bunch of sightings but the Fish and Game people won’t admit to it

We had the same problem in North Dakota for years.

No PhD in Wildlife Management and the sightings were treated (almost sneeringly) as "anecdotal evidence" and ignored.

Then someone backed up to the Fish and Game Office, dropped the tailgate and rolled out their 'anecdotal evidence'.

That was the end of the official denial. Not long after that a bowhunter bagged one in the river bottoms outside Williston, and 3 more were imaged by game cameras, not three miles from town (15000 pop. then, now 45000 after 6 years).

Numerous others have been bagged in the badlands since.