Exactly the same issue in Michigan--experienced hunters were going so far as to bring in footprint casts and still being told that they were delusional.  It's a weird thing.

Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.

Seems like that should be illegal.  

They are here. Three sightings in my yard in 4 months, 2 cougars twice and one the other time. Several reports recently also from neighboring towns within about 20 min ride of here. The one's my yard  were seen, separately, by  me and a friend, Dtr, and neighbor. I have taken precautions and taken up safety practices for my small dogs and children who play here. We have to learn to live together I guess. Seems we can't get scientific proof, scat, hair, prints. They seem to find rocky areas to travel, walk softly and carry a big tail!..hahaha
Eventually there will be more and more and something will give to prove it, road kill or something. Then those of us who have seen can feel less "crazy" and be fortunate to have to seen them and be able to tell our stories. I don't feel the need to have a wildlife degree to tell the difference between a coyote and a cougar.
Western Maine

PenelopeME

Are state biologists more likely than other experts to resist believing reports of new critters in their area?  If so, what would be their motivation?: avoiding paperwork?; avoiding field work?; avoiding policy changes?; instinctive scorn of the non-professional?

A number of years ago, when I was living in Santa Fe, I had an opportunity to observe a Common or Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus, at fairly close range, in good light, for about a half hour, as it worked on a tree outside my window.  From its coloring, it was unmistakably the "yellow-shafted" form; but in that part of the country, one ought to expect to see mostly the "red-shafted" form.  There are occasional interlopers from either side in the Plains states, apparently, so while it was not earth-shaking that a yellow-shafted should show up in the Rockies, it was still mighty interesting.  So I told all this to a worker at the excellent Randall Davey Audubon Center, someone whom I liked and admired; and she just smiled, and said I must have got it wrong.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof," said the late Carl Sagan.  But he was talking about such claims as alien abduction and Sasquatch.  Claims to have seen mountain lions in the northeastern states certainly require proof, but there is nothing all that extraordinary in it.

This is why the grassroots group that is monitoring sightings of mountain lions is doing very good work indeed.  Certainly birders do not go to state biologists to confirm what they saw, they are way beyond that.  Similarly other amateur observers of wildlife ought to be able to register an unusual and interesting sighting with a sympathetic bulletin board.

The sightings in southern West Virginia and Delaware are thrilling, as well as in northern and central Florida.  These cats have the largest range of any mammal in the Americas, and probably have the largest range of any cat anywhere, from southern Alaska and the Yukon to Tierra del Fuego.  Clearly they are adaptable, and find ways to move around.

Penelope of course does well to take precautions.  A couple of years ago, at Moosehead Lake, I asked a resident if anyone was concerned about wolves moving into Maine from Quebec.  She said No, not that she was aware of, though they had heard about the possibility.  But mountain lions come into violent conflict with people and their pets much more easily than wolves.

One recommendation to the Eastern Cougar Network: though they are making available data from Canada, it would be helpful to add more of Canada to their maps.  Probably the US northeastern mountain lions came down from Quebec (though not impossibly the one in WV came up the Ohio valley, seeing how many sightings around the Mississippi there are), and I for one would like a better sense of the cats' distribution in Canada.

Chickens are our cousins! So are other sensitive animals! Enough is enough! No more factory farms!