The existence of mountain lions (cougars) in East Texas has been a controversial topic over the last 50 years.
Wildlife officials have balked at their existence and at one point their distribution was officially designated as living only West of Interstate 35 with breeding populations only in the Trans Pecos (far West Texas) and the South Texas Brush Country.
The fact is cougars are native in East Texas and have never been eliminated completely.
They are indigenous to the entire Lower 48, much of Canada and extend their range into the southern tip of South America.
When wildlife was wiped out in the late 1800s and early 1900s cougars like everything else declined. But as science-based wildlife management took root whitetail populations rose from 500,000 continent-wide to 25 million.
Cougar populations rose too.
It is my opinion through much research and many interviews they never left East Texas but they did decline and their seems to be ample of evidence more are showing up in the region.
In 2010-11 I reached out to many hunters, hunting clubs and wildlife enthusiasts and was given three different photos of cougars taken in that span in Newton and Jasper Counties. These photos were never circulated on the Internet. These were firsthand accounts. I thought I had lost these but was recently able to recover an old computer and found them.
These two photo were taken near Newton, the seat of Newton County on the Louisiana border. They were taken a few miles apart a fairly short time apart and me and the taker of the second photo believe it’s the same cat.
This next photo is a much larger cat-a mature male (no doubt) and this was taken on a hunting club in Jasper County. This is not the same animal and was taken the previous year.
These are not grainy shots with a motion blur showing a bobcat with the tail obscured. These are actual mountain lions and none of them showed up on the Internet before I published them in a series I was doing at the time in the Port Arthur News.
I get photos of cats sent to me multiple times a week for identification. Some think they’ve seen a black panther while others are wondering if they got a cougar.
The vast majority of the “cougar” photos are bobcats. People have a hard time judging scale and recognizing bobcats actually do have tails and some of them are pretty long.
Some of these “cougars” are actually feral house cats.
And I don’t fault anyone for misidentification. Not everyone is a wildlife expert.
But there are cougars out there west of Interstate 35 in Texas and there are legitimate photos and videos nows from Louisiana, Arkanas and other states.
There certainly isn’t a dense population like those that exist in Colorado or even the Trans Pecos of Texas but there are cougars out there. They have a big range and I believe they are reestablishing themselves in areas where many have thought them extinct for decades.
They are in East Texas.
How many? No one knows but their existence is unquestionable.
If you have photos or videos of cougars -mountain lions -or of any mysterious cat email me at chester@chestermoore.com. I would love to see the photos and can maybe share some insights with you.
Cougars are amazing animals and their ability to remain elusive is what makes them so special. I’m grateful we have trail cameras now to even the odds a bit and give us a look at their lives in the wild areas-even of East Texas.
Chester Moore
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In the early 50s as a kid we would hear them screaming in the woods off of Tulane rd , Orange,TX . Made the hair on the back curl out. Gerald Burleigh 77 yrs old