A year or so ago in Wisconsin, residents of some separate western Wisconsin localities reported seeing what looked like to them a mountain lion. The state DNR fiercely denied the reports saying those people had to be mistaken. Later photographic evidence turned up showing it was indeed a mountain lion. Then the DNR did some blustering about how it was just a rare lion wandering far from home. To which the proper reply was: and so what? It was in fact a ml, and the state DNR was wrong. Why they went to such headed efforts to deny the possibility is mystifying. More mls have been reported since then.
that’s heated efforts.... not headed efforts
Ask yourself, can you (legally) hunt something that doesn’t “officially” exist? Once they allow that extirpated species have returned then they have to set bag limits, seasons, licensing, etc, and that’s after the fern-feelers have filed a bazillion lawsuits. It’s just a lot of trouble. Yeah, it’s their job.