A guy from VA saw this video and wrote me: Hanback you’re from VA, you ever seen or heard about any cougars here?
I’ve never seen one here, but I’ve long heard stories from hunters across the state who swear they saw one in the woods. I’ve heard all the conspiracy theories, like “the state knows they are here but won’t admit it.” Some people have gone so far as to accuse the state of secretly releasing cougars into the VA woods. But you hear stuff like that anytime somebody in any eastern state claims to see one.
While the VA Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries mentions the eastern cougar in its species booklet, it never comes out says we have the big predators. According to the state, there have been 121 possible mountain lion sightings across the state, but none has been officially confirmed.
Regarding cougars in the Tidewater region where the 2009 video was made, a wildlife official said in this article from 2010: “I’d never rule it out… But you’ve got to understand. I’ve been chasing mountain lion reports for nearly 26 years, and I have yet to find any physical evidence that they still exist in the wild in Virginia. No bodies. No fresh kills. No hair. No scat. Nothing.”
The animal in the trail cam picture in the video is most certainly a lion, though you never see its long tail clearly. The guy in the video looks and sounds Tidewater legit, so I’d say we had at least one cougar in the state 4 years ago.
Whether there are any big cats here today remains a mystery, but I’d say it’s possible.
I do not know what others have seen or exactly what is in this picture but I am 100% certain what I saw in Pa. both times…they look exactly like the one that hangs in my den from B.C.
When I saw the first one there were 4 of us in a Jeep an all blurted out cougar at the same time, when the second one ran across the road in front of my pickup I had to serve to miss it and my father was with me. He killed a dozen cougars in his lifetime while living in Wyo. and Colo. and he had no problem calling that cat a cougar as it loped up a gas line for 600 yards after crossing the road. Good enough for me.
Clearly a bobcat here Mike.
Seems pretty clear to me that’s a bobcat. You can even see it’s spots. I’ve seen a few photos that made me question, but that isn’t one of them.
It seems like every state I have hunted in claims to have cougars. In the deep south states such as Mississippi and Alabama the cougar rumors are very active. I find it hard to believe that there has never been conclusive evidence of their existence in those states with all the tales you hear.
They are in north central Pa. I’ve seen 2. One in Sullivan county another in Potter county that I nearly hit with my pickup.
It used to be fun to chase “cougars” here in Va. Now that I am older than most of them…….not so much! But, I digress!
I have heard stories for years about them in our area. Have seen and heard a few bobcats, but that’s about it. I see no reason to dispute the sighting, though.