Sounds like someone may be quietly reintroducing them. I wonder who that would be?
We have one here in Northern Virginia about 60 miles west of DC. Has been spotted by dozens of people, chasing deer down. The scuttlebutt is some biologists are releasing them in various areas. Although these are government employees, it is being done on the QT to avoid legal complications if (when) a human is attacked. Not satisfied with social engineering, some are delving into a bit of environmental engineering...
Nope. Just mother nature showing humans who is more powerful.
They are reintroducing themselves. They disappearred because there was a family on every 40 acres that would shoot them (and the deer they ate) on sight.
Whitetail deer were also hunted to extinction in most of the U.S.
What’s different now?
1. Very few rural Americans.
2. A thick and well fed deer population
3. Currently no wolves to compete with