Disturbing Disclosure: Texas Cougars Being Released in East?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 5th, 2012
The reality of cougars on the Atlantic coast came home when one was struck and killed on a highway near Fairfield, Connecticut in 2011.
Now there’s a surprising theory being heard about the sightings of cougars in the East.
A source (who wishes to remain anonymous) tells us that the Cougar Rewilding Foundation is involved in “a new ‘secret project’ for the dumping of wild-captured Texas cougars into the eastern USA national forests. A West Virginia native believes,” the source says, “the ‘dumping” of Texas cougars is already quietly underway, with more in the planning stage into other eastern national forests. A documentary is said to be in ‘production’ at present time,” which will be broadcast on a cable network.
“With all the sightings we have received in the last 4-5 weeks, I think its very possible, the dumping of Texas cougars is already underway in Virginia, Ohio and New York State, where sightings have gone wild,” our source relates.
We await more on this developing story, and the shocking “revelation” of what is supposedly coming in a program on a documentary cable channel in the near future.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Sounds highly dubious to me.
And on a side note, the cougars are moving back to Texas for warmer weather.
Don’t know if it’s true, but if so their activities would violate probably half a dozen Federal laws. Here’s the link to their website. Their mission statement in the “about us” section seems to fit with the story.
This sort of rumor of secretly relocated cougars has been circulating for decades about the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois too. I think people don’t realize how widely these animals can range in the natural course of things. It’s amazing how folks will jump to the most sensational conclusion first! In cases like this, I’m a firm believer in Ockham’s razor!
If true, this is really irresponsible. However, I know folks in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia who assure me that eastern cougars never went away, although numbers did significantly appear to go down. I saw one myself circa 2000 within a town limits in VA, and of the black variety, even. Very briefly.
Introducing a non-native variety can have unforeseen consequences, and I do NOT think Texas cougars range across two sets of mountains and a broad valley.
Good afternoon, Mr. Coleman,
Rest assured, the Cougar Rewilding Foundation is not releasing Texas cats (or cougars from anywhere) into the East. However, should we ever get that far in our advocacy, you’ll hear about those transparent efforts long before the cats are ever on the ground.
…
Best,
Christopher Spatz, President
Cougar Rewilding Foundation
Oh, yeah…there’s no documentary.
Thank you, President Spatz for your appreciated clarification of this “rumor” about your alleged involvement in a reality documentary program. That ends that.
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Thank you.
Here in Northeast Texas there have been many big cat sightings. Thanks for sharing.
I do not for one minute believe that cougars from Texas are being surreptitiously released in the East. However, Texas cougars are thought to be of the existing subspecies most closely related to Florida panthers, and its true that in the mid-1990s, a small number of female cougars were imported into Florida from Texas to reduce inbreeding in the desperately endangered Florida panther. The experiment has been a resounding success, but it is not an ongoing event. I believe a total of about 8 females were released, around 1995.
Maybe someone read or heard about that and drew a faulty conclusion.
Fossil Hunter is correct on noting the extent of the cougar’s range. I don’t go into the timber anymore unless I am armed against the four-legged or two-legged varmints.