Published January 2, 2007
Eastern Cougars may be officially extinct in Georgia
But close encounters still occur in Pickens County

By Dan Pool
The Georgia Board of Natural Resources officially bid adieu to the Eastern Cougar when they revised the list of protected species for this state in September.
The cougar, along with 18 other species, was removed from a protected status, not because they have rebounded, but because the state officially considers them extinct here. The cougar goes by at least 57 different aliases, according to "Grizzly" Craig Cylke of the Ellijay Wildlife Rehab Sanctuary, who houses five of the 45 cats still thought to exist in the eastern U.S.
Among the names are panther, "panter," puma and catamount, but are all a single species (Felis concolor). The Florida panther is a subspecies, but essentially the same animal.
Cylke, in fact, says there is some documentation that the 29 cougars thought to still prowl the Everglades are genetically identical to the others and not even a subspecies, but Florida officials have "for political reasons tried to split hairs."
Although the Florida panthers are often portrayed as black panthers, color variations exist among the animals in any habitat, so Florida cats are not necessarily black and cougars in other areas may be black. Some old timers here will say there used to be black panthers in these parts.
The state's update to the protected animal list added 121 species, deleted 18 species, and changed the status of 43 species that were already listed. Many of the new additions are plant species, as well as numerous crayfish and freshwater mussel species.
The changes were made based on scientific data submitted by members of the public and biologists both within and outside of WRD, according to a press release.
Generally accepted history indicates the big cats of the east have been extinct since as early as the 1940s. The last confirmed cougar killed in the Smoky Mountains was in the 1920s.
A detailed search for cougars in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during 2002 turned up no hard evidence of their existence. However there were four reported sightings of cougars in Cades Cove, an area inside the park, that same year.
During the 1980s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to produce any evidence for the cats' continued presence in the east during extensive surveys.
One might be tempted to say, close the book, write off the cougar.
But hold on a second, as Mark Twain once quipped, reports of their demise may be premature.
Lillie Mae Pendley said she has seen cougars near her home, not far outside of Bent Tree, several times and hears their screams at night every once in a while.
Pendley, a Pickens County native, said she has seen and been aware of cougars in that area all her life.
As everyone who lives near Bent Tree knows, deer, the cats' main food source, are overly-abundant, which might explain the elusive cats' survival there.
Pendley got a dramatic firsthand account of their continued existence last summer when she watched a mountain lion stalk a group of deer for about 10 minutes. She didn't see the cat make a kill, but noted that a young fawn regularly observed with the group was never seen again.
She also encountered one of the cougars while walking. She said she was on a hill leading down to a branch and the cougar made a throaty noise, "sort of like a yawn." Only then did she spot the animal on a tree that had fallen across the branch. "I took the noise as a warning and backed away," she said.
That night, she and her husband awoke to the same cat stirring on their back deck. Apparently it came seeking house cat food, which they put out there.
She said she and her husband have occasionally heard the cats' "screams" all their lifes.
"It will make your hair stand up," she said.
Pendley can recall incidents relating to the cats dating back to a story her grandfather told about driving home from church one Sunday evening, when the "holler" of a mountain lion spooked the horses pulling the buggy.
Once in the 1970s, one of Pendley's sons tried tracking a mountain lion after seeing the tracks in a heavy snow and noticing the animal was also dripping blood, but to no avail.
Pendley is not the only one who hears cougars screaming in that area between Cove Road and Bent Tree.
County Agent Rick Jasperse, who lives with his family a short distance away from Pendley, said one night his wife came in pale and trembling after hearing what he assumes was a panther's scream.
Jasperse said he still remains skeptical of there being cougars here, but at the same time concedes firsthand reports are hard to dismiss.
Jasperse said his office gets a few calls every year from people who claim to have seen the animals. "I believe these people have seen something," he said. "Obviously it is not a coyote or deer they are seeing with the long tails, and a cat is unmistakable in its movement."
While skeptical, Jasperse will also cite evidence supporting the idea of a population in his area. He said his dogs bring up deer remains year round. On his street, Jasperse said there are not enough cars or poachers to explain the constant stream of deer remains his dogs come home with.
"Something is killing the deer," he said.
There are other reported encounters only a few miles away as the crow flies. A couple who live near the top of Burnt Mountain say two of the critters were prowling their woods a few years ago; one being a mother with two kittens.
Thomas and Jean Puett, who live in an unpopulated section of Burnt Mountain near the county's protected 800 acre preserve, say they haven't seen the cougars in recent months but had three separate sightings during a single week about six years ago and still find what they believe to be scat from the animals.
Thomas said he had a good view of one cat while driving up the steep, winding driveway. "I came across a hill and there it was," he said. "It didn't take him long to disappear, but I got a good view."
Thomas said he recognized what the animal was immediately. This cat was easily two or two and a half times bigger than a bobcat. Also it had the long distinctive tail of a cougar, according to Puett. Pendley also noted that the tail was very distinctive.
The second time Mr. Puett got a view, it was a quick close-up. Thomas said he was hunting near his home, going underneath an overhanging rock on a steep slope to get out of the rain. "The cougar must have had the same idea," he said.
During the same week, Puett's wife was alerted by strange barking of their dogs and grabbed her gun to investigate. She said the first time she went to look, she didn't see anything, but the dogs kept barking. On her second trip, she said she saw a female cougar with two cubs. "It 'rared' (a noise Jean said wasn't a roar but was hard to describe) at the cubs and they ran away, then it 'rared' at me," Ms. Puett said. After the cougar turned its attention to her, Ms. Puett said she fired her gun once in the air and ran - never to see the cougar again.
That was the last time the Puetts have seen a cougar.
Mr. Puett noted that at the time they saw the elusive animals, the first phase of construction on the Georgian Highlands subdivision was getting underway, opening up a large section of previously isolated mountain territory.
"I believe they may have pushed them out of that area to our side of the road," he said.
Based on first person accounts given to him at the Wildlife Sanctuary, Cylke believes there are true wild cougars still here, although extremely few in number.
He estimated there were probably only two breeding pairs in the area, not enough or with enough genetic diversity for the population to ever rebound. Even if you took all 45 cats still thought to exist in the east, there is not enough diversity for the population to rebound on its own.
"With only 45 left, everybody is related to everybody," he said. "It makes the bloodline very prone to disease."
Cylke said he has aims of a re-population program drawing on western cats for fresh genetic material.
But first, proving there are still wild ones here has a practical advantage for him.
If the animal can be "re-populated" by mixing in some western cougar offspring, there is 50 percent less red tape for government approval than there would be if the animals had to be "re-introduced," he said.
"Our interest is in seeing the species survive," he said. "It's a shame they deny their existence. My father and wife have both seen them, one volunteer has seen them. Having the five here in captivity, the smell when young females are in season attracts others."
Cylke said twice they had, what he believes are, genuine wild cougars visit the sanctuary. In the first instance, all the staff and volunteers were scrambling to figure out which of their five resident cats was out of its cage.
Cylke points out that although he didn't see the animals either time, staff and volunteers did and these are people who see the caged animals every day and certainly know what they look like.
Dr. Robert Keller, executive director of the Mountain Conservation Trust with a Ph.D. in conservation biology, said he's skeptical but hopeful that true wild cougars still exist in this area.
Keller, who has done extensive field research on wild boar and other animals in the Smoky Mountains, said there is a theory that the cougars being seen are former pets that have grown too large or unruly to handle.
It is still legal to own cougars in some states.
Cylke, however, doubted one raised as a pet would survive long in the wild, and would probably come to houses and people looking to be fed, rather than becoming elusive.
Keller said when the state says extinct, they don't mean there aren't any left, just that there isn't a natural population.
But, Keller adds that he wouldn't be surprised if there were still some natural populations left, especially as the deer population has exploded in the southeast.
Cougars' primary prey is deer and with the number of deer in the local area, if there are cougar here, the predators aren't forced to travel far to find a meal.
Keller notes that having such an ample food source at hand would give the cougars a big advantage in staying off roads and out of sight -- if they are here.
"This is what you refer to as optimally foraging," he said. "In this particular case, the cougars don't have to go far to find deer. If they are here, they're happy."
When asked if there was a chance the people who claim to have seen cougars have actually seen bobcats or something else, Keller said that's pretty unlikely.
A cougar can weigh up to 145 pounds; the record bobcat is only 46 pounds. The size difference between the two animals plus the tail would make a mis-identification unlikely.
Puett said the animal he saw was about the size of a large red-bone hound.
Puett and Pendley both said the tail of the animal was very distinctive, a feature missing on a bobcat. Puett said he was also amazed at how quickly the cat "disappeared" after both encounters.
"It would put a deer to shame, how fast they were out of sight," he said. "I was trying to watch where they were going, but it was just like they disappeared."
Although there are some theories that cougars, which are still known to exist in Florida, are moving up through the state, Keller said he would more likely believe in a natural population.
"When you hear people talk about forming natural corridors [from Florida to here], this is what they hope will happen -- that animals will disperse," said Keller.
He said animals will move to other areas to find better food sources or mates and neither of those reasons would explain why the cats would travel from Florida this far north. "They could have come here from Florida, but why?" he said.
In the end, people like Keller and Jasperse may sum it up best as "skeptical but possible" of the cougars' wild existence here.
[Editor's Note: The Progress along with County Agent Jasperse challenges the community to provide some proof of the cats' existence in this area. The County Agent promised a future article on how to make plaster casts of animal tracks which could be used for cougar tracks and encouraged people who have motion sensor trail cameras to try and capture an image of one of cats. Also look for a follow-up on the Ellijay Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary (www.wildliferehabsanctuary.org/) and their plans of a re-population program.]