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Notes -
Similar to your coyote theory, I have a deep belief that there is a self-sustaining mountain lion population in the Appalachian mountain range. I know too many people who are generally trustworthy who claim to have seen them, and I'm pretty sure I've seen tracks myself deep in West Virginia. I've also seen something in Northern PA once, but I can't discount that it might have simply been the biggest bobcat I've seen in my life. The light was terrible.
The more conspiratorially-minded members of my family suggest that the reason they aren't acknowledged is because it would play merry hell on local industry due to the endangered species act. I've also heard tales that they were intentionally introduced to keep the deer population in check.
Plausible -- I live in a place where nobody disputes that there's ample cougars (also bobcats etc), but I've seen exactly one of each in my (40+, pretty outdoorsy, lives literally in the woods) life.
Up here, anywhere you go that's not 100% paved, you are probably in the territory of some cougar -- but they don't want to be seen, so you don't.
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Second this one, I'm of the mind that it's true myself, though I think that simple bureaucratic inertia plus public safety concerns, when taken together, is more than enough to explain the conventional wisdom.
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