![]() (Anyone remember a certain cobra on the loose in Raleigh this summer?) That's how a pair of pet cougars that had escaped were found feeding at a dumpster in Tyrrell County in the 1980s.Īnd sightings of wild cougars persist, especially in Western North Carolina. Big cats, like other exotic animals, aren't regulated and allowed to be kept as pets in the state. That doesn't mean, however, mountain lions haven't been found in North Carolina since then. ![]() Seeing shadows - or a different type of big cat Mountain lions have been caught on camera in Indiana, and Tennessee wildlife officials maintain a map that shows confirmed cougar sightings, including at least half-dozen within roughly 350 miles of Asheville. A cougar of unknown origin also was killed in Kentucky in December 2014, according to the USFWS. Similar to what's happened in recent decades with the coyote, Western mountain lions are slowly moving east to fill in the predatorial gap at the top of the food chain. Moving to NC naturallyīut that doesn't mean all hope is lost in seeing big cats back in North Carolina. “We understand people in North Carolina are not cougar experts, and we’re here to help people understand what they’re seeing, what is on their property," Owens said, adding that biologists would be just as excited as the public if one of these sightings turned out to be genuine.įederal biologists have reached the same conclusion, and in 2018 the Eastern cougar was removed from the federal endangered species list after a detailed, multi-year analysis had found the animal to be extinct. The last recorded sightings of Eastern cougars are believed to be from Maine in 1938 and New Brunswick, Canada, in 1932, according to the U.S. But most of the purported sightings turn out to be pictures of bobcats, house cats where gauging the size of the animal being photographed is difficult, or even hoaxes. Owens said the wildlife commission takes all reports of cougar sightings seriously, and diligently investigates those where it's warranted. ![]()
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