We saw a cougar in our yard, and recorded it’s call. It scared the bejeebers out of me, and I have never been scared here in 25 years! Called the TWRA to tell them, and they blew us off. “There aren’t cougars in Tennessee.”
I know there are! Been there done that. There are cougar in Kentucky, Missouri, and they are seen in the flat-lands of Kansas and Western Colorado. They've killed domestic cattle in all of the states mentioned here.
“There aren’t cougars in Tennessee.”
Same in Illinois, until they had to kill one in Chicago recently, then they claimed it was an illegal cougar from Minnesota.
When we got to western SD in 1979, the only thing seen of cougars was the occasional footprint. Now they are prolific, with a hunting season and a bag limit that has risen steadily as the true numbers become more evident.
After the hunting season three more were killed due to predatory behavior. Killing geese goat and pets.
This topic eases into another being pushed by a senator from SD who as an adult ought to know better but does not, and that is wilderness designation. My forefathers spent untold money and effort ridding the country of wilderness, and just like bad pennies, and early in life mistakes, it and wolfs are coming home to roost.