In general they are reclusive. I've seen three in my life in the wild. The best time to spot one is near dusk or at night. I saw my last one at night running in front of me on a rural road near my house. They generally won't bother you or pets etc.
Two things you do want to watch for in east Tennessee is Coons which can rip you up good. They look cute but they can rip you or a pet dog up real good. The second problem is the non native Yotes or Coyotes which have invaded us over the last three decades. Yotes were never native to our area. They came east when for a year or two the Mississippi got real low and they crossed it.
I live in the Anderson, Knox, and Union County, triangle area. I've had a couple of confirmed Yote kills on my land and a neighbors land as well. They will feast on smaller dogs, cats, fawns, etc. If you have a bunch of them start yepling real close to you it is very unnerving LOL. I've seen Yotes every including on Illinois Ave in Oak Ridge coming off Oak Ridge Hiway. I chased one in my van one night. He jumped the wall and headed down Bethel Valley.
Mountain lions I think a very few have always been here and are likely in Royal Blue, Southfork, Catoosa, or Cherokee National Forest. I think many more are western that came here the same way the Yotes did they crossed the Mississippi at a historical low level. Then there is the unoffical morons who get one young, bring it home from out west, then after becoming scared of it release it to the wild somewhere.
The safest and most maligned critter we have? The Possum LOL. They'll hiss and sulk up but believe it or not rarely carry Rabies due to a lower body temperature making them hosting it not likely. Coons are a different story.
Even black bears have been moving more this year between the Smokeys and Cumberland mountains One was spotted on Norris Freeway several times about a month ago and another one up in Jacksboro. Last year a black bear was killed on I-75 and Callahan Rd and that's inside Knoxville city limits. Yotes are there also.
Thanks for the info. We’re near Oak Ridge and have a lot of wildlife. I’m glad we don’t need to worry about the bobcat.
We’re all too familiar with the coons — the reason we have six indoor cats now. Some feral babies and their mother were being tormented by raccoons back in 2011. They’d hide in our French drain but that couldn’t last. Hubby shot a couple but more appeared. Big, nasty, and bold. Once we brought in the cats, no more coons.
We do hear coyotes often. It is a creepy sound when they all start yowling. When we lived in So. Cal., they were so bold they’d sashay down the streets of our subdivision, but we haven’t actually seen any here. Sure do hear ‘em though.
We’ve had possums on the screen porch a couple times. Not scary — kind of cute in a weird way.
I live in the NC mts. and often heard coyotes yipping and carrying on last year. This year they’ve been absent.