We have trail cam pic in Michigan of cougar, the DNR says there is no evidence. Two years in a row black bears have traveled south down the Lake Michigan shoreline, until they had to be tranquelized snd removed. It is only a mattet of time until someone gets hurt.
I don’t know how accurate this statement is, but I read a comment on an outdoors board about cougar sightings where they aren’t supposed to be. The gist of it was that if the states acknowledged that there were cougars within their borders, it would be an invitation for the Feds to come in and start using the endangered species act, with predictable consequences. It may or may not be true, but it does sound like something Washington would do. It would also explain why so many sightings across the eastern US are dismissed.