Stephanne: Veline Fires of Sparks and Men, read by Stephanie Payne. There is a surge in cougar sightings across the East, and the government is partly responsible. Quote by Daryl Radijak, former Chief of Wildlife, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Within the last few years, there's been a dramatic upswing in the number of reported sightings of cougars east of the Mississippi. Sometimes these reports have accompanying images, sometimes it's eyewitness accounts. It seems that both images and testimony flood the internet and social media. Of course, that means the official news outlets as well as web-based media are abuzz with warnings about this once native predator returning to our eastern landscape. It's not uncommon to see these stories or the informal sources like social media revving up to educate the general public. Educate being in quotes. Of course, What usually follows is an influx of both solicited and unsolicited feedback from armchair biologists qualifying the story or image or whatever evidence has been submitted as authentic. Maybe not as overt are the speculations on how these cougars, long absent from the East, excluding that pocket population in Florida, are getting here. Opinions are speculative, covering everything from Natural range expansion to covert government releases. The big question is, what has caused this apparent feline invasion? The answer, I believe, is simple. Imagination and misinformation. What has likely happened is that sightings of wild, free-ranging cougars in the East are often created, because in the vast majority of cases, these animals aren't really there. Cougars haven't lived on the eastern landscape for decades, and most places are far from having a year-round population. Before we get into the reasoning of why cougar stories are created, just so everyone knows, outside of the known population of cougars near the Everglades in Florida, there are no documented year-round breeding populations of cougars in what we call the East, which in this case we're referring to the eastern coastal states and maybe one or two states westward of those. That no means none, zero, zip, nada, not one known breeding population anywhere in those eastern states. Now, keep in mind, once upon a time, many decades ago, cougars ranged all over North America. The eastern cat, however, has long been gone from our eastern forests. In fact, Some years ago, the Eastern cougar was officially declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Plenty of organizations and individuals have tried to prove that these cats are still in the East, but after all that time, technology and patience, the conclusion remains the same. There are no resident cougars in the East. So all we have left is the Western subspecies. So why then are cougar sightings being reported routinely in the East? First, the biology. Those western cat populations are actually doing pretty well. In recent history, a very small number of them have decided to venture eastward, Mostly young males who, like the Johnny Lee song says, are looking for love in all the wrong places. In all likelihood, these cats are simply looking for a home. close to the lady cats where they're not going to get their butt kicked by a dominant male. Anyway, those Midwestern nomads, they're typically frisky young males on walkabout. Having said that, the thing to understand is that these cats usually never travel in complete secrecy for a long period of time. They don't just hop up one day on the East Coast and show up then on the nightly news. They're often documented along the Midwestern front first And then they have their picture taken quite regularly throughout their travels. Their photographs are incidental, typically somebody having a trail camera set up in the woods to check out the deer in their area, or quite possibly even on home security cameras. There are so many ways to get an incidental picture that we usually wind up with a nice chain of images showing where the cat goes as it moves across the landscape. Many of these nomads even leave behind DNA calling cards with scat or hair samples. Keep in mind, in most of those Midwestern states where these nomadic journeys start, they are often still struggling to establish or maintain a stable cougar population. So there are lots of areas for those cats to settle in the Midwest. Usually these nomads might find what they're looking for, love and lots of resources and settle down. On really rare occurrences, however, like more rare than even saying once in a while, a Midwestern cat will venture further eastward. So truthfully, there actually have been a few confirmed sightings of single cats in the East, but it's important to understand that a single cat doesn't mean there are cougars. No reproduction or evidence of reproduction, i.e. cubs, has ever been documented or photographed, at least in the last half century, probably much more. Reproduction is obviously necessary as a requirement for year round population. So it is with great and unwavering certainty that we know eastern cougar populations do not exist. So why is this so often an argument? Why is it that so many people believe that cougar populations are alive and well And that individual cats are being seen all over the eastern half of the country. Well, now comes the psychology. A spark is often lit by an easily explained situation, and unfortunately, a firestorm erupts. The public's desire and need for a wow-worthy story is usually what fans those flames. After all, it's an exciting and an engaging topic. Who doesn't think the possibility of an apex predator roaming about your hometown? Is going to make for some really thrilling table talk. So let's start with a couple of well-known feline explorers, both inadvertently well documented that caused some recent sparks. The first was a young cougar born of the Dakota lineage that in 2011 made its way across the Great Lakes states and parts of the Northeast only to meet its demise on a highway in Connecticut. All along its travels, it was photographed and it even left behind DNA evidence in the form of recovered scat. This evidence was documented in the Midwest, in the Great Lakes states, and even in northern New York. So this cat didn't just hop up in Connecticut without any trace of how it got there. The second long distance traveler was a cat that crossed the Mississippi in 2015 and it began its eastward trek in northwest Tennessee. Over the course of a year, it traveled eastward toward the Tennessee River Valley and it had its picture taken at least eight different times along its route. The cat disappeared in the fall of twenty sixteen and it hasn't been photographed since. As you can imagine, those cats caused quite a bit of national stir as their photos were plastered on television screens and in newspapers across the nation. What followed maybe wasn't unexpected, but many folks jumped to the same erroneous conclusion. Cougars were back and state wildlife agencies were finally admitting they were here. The problem was that the public at large completely misconstrued what was really going on. It's it's all in how it's worded, right? I mean, sure, there was a cat, singular, a cat. Maybe there were three cats over the span of years in different locations, but the fact is, photos documenting a single cat's journey across the landscape here and then a single cat three years later, it actually and logically confirms that we don't have anything resembling a population of cougars anywhere in the east. If we did, photos would be popping up constantly. I hope in my lifetime these cats do find their forever homes back in the east. Although I think in my lifetime may be a little optimistic, but over time, given the cats long-ranging characteristics, it will likely eventually happen naturally. unless people interfere one way or the other to change that natural timeline. The interesting thing is, once that happens, I hope we learn to share our landscape with cougars just like we do with bears, deer, and other large mammals. Okay, but enough with the wishful thinking and back to the fires. As long as the mystique and the aura of cougars being on the landscape is planted in the minds of the people, the sightings seem to continue to burst forward. Why though? Are people just crazy? Not really. The answer may actually be quite simple. When it comes to spotting wildlife, the eye is the easiest thing to fool. And a thirsty for excitement brain does quick work to create a convincing image in the mind's eye. Those, hmm, could it be? Images suddenly become reality. I won't say that every single blurry, indistinct, or nighttime view snapshot is not a cougar, but I will say that the vast majority of those sightings are just our brain telling our eyes what we want to see. Think about it. People want to see a cougar because their story becomes instant, exciting table talk and social buzz, right? Although most sightings are easily explained by misidentification. Once a story of a presumed cougar sighting is shared. That legend, it just grows. It's a vicious cycle. A single sighting becomes an explosive incendiary device lighting fires everywhere. Regardless of its authenticity, that initial story spawns another and another and the another and another. These unconfirmed sightings get shared far and wide and suddenly become social facts. In days before social media, this wasn't much of an issue because local tales pretty much stayed local. A small group may be misinformed, but not the masses. Nowadays, tall tales grow to epic blockbusters as social connectivity promotes widespread misinformation regionally at best and globally at worst. But alas, social media alone is not the most dangerous incendiary device. That friend. Is when our news media spreads fake news. There are countless news reports generated in print, on television, or the web that report possible cougar sightings. Even when the suspected sightings are debunked immediately for misidentification, they usually don't pull the story and explain the error. Why? Because that story makes for awesome table talk and ratings. Remember, clicks, views, those usually mean cash. Here's a prime example. A number of years ago, a cougar was reportedly seen in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee. The State Wildlife Agency investigated and positively identified the animal as a golden retriever. Yet in the background, over dinner, we hear topping tonight's eyewitness news, a cougar sighting in Nolansville. And, you know, shortly thereafter, an even more egregious news report shows up about the unfortunate death of multiple ponies, which was then ultimately blamed on a cougar by the local sheriff. This was even after a Southeastern Wildlife Agency investigated the scene and concluded that these ponies were not even killed by a wild animal. Remember, wildlife professionals see and deal with dead animals on a daily basis. Their careers rely on valuable input. Yet their input was almost wholly dismissed. The Sheriff's Department suddenly became the voice of the people and kept promoting a dangerous wild animal on the loose. The most offensive part of that story came days later when a news agency used an out-of-context picture of a house cat and warned the public of a cougar while continuously misquoting the State Wildlife Agency about local cougar existence. A few weeks after that, The same news agency posted a rather grainy picture of a bobcat and suggested it was some sort of big cat on the loose and to stay on the alert. The the story kept snowballing. The media kept abusing the facts. So the public wasn't sparked. They were hit with an atom bomb of misinformation. It's no wonder the public is so misinformed about wildlife, yeah? So why is this the government's fault? Well, besides the fact that they seem to always be a stable target for conspiracy and blame, when unsubstantiated talks about cougars start to grow rampant, it becomes a prime opportunity for the government to teach and inform. Unfortunately, they sometimes say a few ambiguous words about the topic at best, but for the most part, they typically just remain silent. From an educated point of view, it's insulting because silence breeds chatter and assumptions. Absent unsubstantiated chatter breeds misinformation. So instead of tamping out the few sparks of misinformation, the silence provides the perfect breeding ground for fires to grow. To make matters worse, it often breeds conspiracy theories that the government is actually in on it and possibly releasing cougars. Trust me, I have heard every kind of cougar conspiracy theory that there is. Anyway, once state wildlife agencies lose the professional lead over one of the most interesting, charismatic, and controversial creatures out there, new players begin to be the voice. Instead of providing sound science based on documentation and evidence, These new players provide conjecture, speculation, embellishment, and opinion. The bottom line, state and federal agencies have a chance to be the lead voice. In fact, they need to be the lead voice regardless of how controversial the animal may be. Sure, they dedicate their lives to animals, but that doesn't mean that they have the luxury Of ignoring people, ignoring us, or dismissing us with flippant responses and explanations. If they continue to be silent or dismissive, the masses have little choice but to follow the misinformed voices they do get. That, my friend, is a scary day, because without a doubt, both people and wildlife will be scorched by the proverbial raging fires.