[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

The person who saw the large cat I mentioned said that it was black. It was crossing a road in a county near here that is predominately rural. This particular area has an abundance of water, old timber, new growth timber and plenty of wildlife, and very few people. At first they thought it was something else, but then they saw its tail - which, as you mentioned, was the deciding factor.

I had heard about the cats in Louisiana, I think I've actually seen a copy of something from a trail cam that definitely was NOT a bobcat.

[ZULU]

The American East probably has more forest cover in it than it has had since the first settlers arrived here. I KNOW that is the case in New Jersey. by the 1800’s most of New Jersey and other eastern states had been effectively cleared of forest land for farmlands, the tannin industry and other reasons.

Today a lot of those farms are abandoned, a lot of areas have been set aside for national forests, and local forests and parkland. Further, the white tailed deer population in the east has skyrocketed. A few generations ago there were very few white-tails in Jersey, and, presumably, other adjacent eastern states. A very aggressive re-introduction program by fish and game agencies increased their numbers and they have spread into areas where they either cannot be practicably hunted, OR public opinion creates such opposition to hunting that it is highly limited or even not permitted at all.

Add together the fact that the eastern U.S. now has a tremendous increase in forest cover, a massive increase in the White tailed deer population, AND the fact that there are breeding populations of cougars in Michigan and other midwestern and western states and cougars have large individual ranges, and it would be surprising if they DIDN'T successfully reestablish themselves in the Jersey Pine Barrens, the Appalachians, the Adirondacks and Catskills and other suitable areas in the East.