Two roadkilled cougars have been recovered from North Carolina in recent years, both from the eastern part of the state. One carcass had a tattooed ear, the other had no front claws. Obviously, these specimens were not from a breeding population of native cougars. Their primary prey species, the white-tailed deer, is perhaps more abundant today than ever. If any cougars at all made it through the lean years at the turn of the century, we would expect the population to be growing now with the abundance of prey and establishment of safe refuges in the Smoky Mountains Park and other wilderness areas.
Cougars roam widely in search of prey.
They regularly cross roads and highways. In the Florida Everglades, where a closely monitored population of a few dozen cougars persists today, automobiles kill one or more cougars per year. Wildlife office A.E. Ammonds, who for the past 30 years has patrolled an area of Western North Carolina which includes such prime cougar habitat as Shining Rock and the Harmon Den area adjacent to the Smokies Park, has found no concrete evidence of a viable cougar population. He points out that cougars are easily treed by hunting dogs and in Western states are hunted as well as captured for scientific study through use of dogs. In all his years in Western North Carolina, he knows of no instance where a cougar has been treed by the highly skilled hunters and their dogs who annually scour the Harmon Den area in search of black bears and raccoons.