Regular cougar sighting in North Carolina

by Ryan Rachman
(North Carolina)

I live in the state of North Carolina approximately 430 meters from the Peedee river. I own 68 acres of land right next to wildlife.

I have been seeing a rather large cat species in my yard almost every night for the past 3 weeks. It looks like a lion has a tail around 3 to 4 foot long it is a sandy blondish red color and has darker colors around the mouth and ear areas.

I’ve been as close as 10 feet away from this cat eye to eye and to my surprise was not threatened by any means. The cat probably weighs about 200 pounds and is getting rather comfortable on my property what should I do??

I do not want to kill it but I’m a father of two kids and would die if something happened to my children.

Ryan – ryan_dada@yahoo.com



Update: Please see the extensive list of comments on this page as there are many from other citizens of N. Carolina who have seen a cougar and/or evidence of one. Judging by the large number of sightings recorded in the comments it seems to me that the puma is not extinct in the East. Below I allude to the possibility that the Ryan’s sighting was of a domesticated puma but that assessment may well be wrong 😊.


Puma at night
Puma at night. Photo in public domain.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Hi Ryan.. thanks for visiting. The first thing to note is that I live in London, England. My answer is based on common sense principles and knowledge acquired.

North Carolina is eastern USA – obviously. The cougar (Puma) has been officially declared extinct in the wild in eastern USA by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Please read Eastern Cougar Extinct March 2011.

You are suggesting that a cougar is coming onto your land.

On the basis that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are correct (and there is debate about that) then the cat that you are seeing, which sounds as if it is a cougar, is either a domesticated one that has escaped or one of the last wild cougars in eastern USA. People domestic cougars in the USA.

If it is the latter is is very rare. If it is the former the cat belongs to someone. The cat sounds as if it is domesticated to me being unperturbed by your presence.

In either case it should not be shot and I am very pleased to read that you agree this.

I also agree that your children’s safety is paramount. Children should be supervised in the presence of a cougar – common sense I guess. Cougars can be chased off by adults – Mountain Lion Attack. Your children shouldn’t go out unsupervised until the matter is dealt with.

My best advise is to contact the authorities (not the police) and ask for help. The only trouble with that is I have read that “the authorities” tend to like to shoot large cats. Well, that is the impression I get. So strict instructions should be given to say that no one is treated or endangered and that you are concerned for the cat as much as yourself and family.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission promotes conservation “and provides assistance for landowners wishing to manage wildlife on their lands..” They might be a good starting point. But keep your mind open. Some people have closed dogmatic minds and tend to respond in a formulaic manner (shoot and ask later). Their contact details are: 1-800-662-7137 (this is for “wildlife violations” which is not really appropriate but the best number that I can find).

You no doubt have a better idea as to who to contact but never the police please! They often do more harm than good.

The cat should be caught and “re-homed” somewhere safe. It is the cat that is more in danger than the people in actual fact.

If the children go out you should accompany them and if the cougar (presuming the cat is a cougar) appears follow the instructions that I have listed on the Mountain Lion Attack page.

If anyone has a better idea please leave a comment asap – thank you.

Michael Avatar

Regular cougar sighting in North Carolina to Wild Cat Species

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Regular cougar sighting in North Carolina

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Mar 25, 2012 cougars in nc NEW
by: Brian

Two years ago, a friend and myself were deer hunting in Rutherford County NC, and I saw a cougar. I had been sitting at the base of an oak tree for about an hour, and I decided to get up and move around a little. I had been standing for about ten minutes when I happened to turn around and look behind me. All of the sudden, I spotted what at first, I thought was a deer trotting towards me a about 50 yards away. Naturally, I got my deer rifle ready so I could shoot. As it got closer, I thought to myself, that is not a deer. As the animal got closer, I noticed that it had a broad head, was tan in color, and was not moving like a deer at all. When the animal got within about 30 feet of my location, it turned and went behind a laurel thicket. By this point, I knew that this was a cougar. It appeared to weigh anywhere from 150 to 175 lbs. and it had a long bushy tail. After the cougar ran behind the laurel thicket, I lost visual contact for about 5 seconds. When the cougar came out from around the other side of the thicket, it jumped a shallow ravine that was about ten feet wide, and ran up the ridge away from me. The thing that still stands out in my memory is the fact that I never heard a sound. This occured in late fall, so there was plenty of leaves on the ground, however, when the cougar passed by, there was complete silence. Something that I will never forget to say the least. I never fired a shot because I was in shock over what I was seeing.


Feb 10, 2012 Georgia has big cats too. NEW
by: Anonymous

I live in Georgia. We too have sighted a mountain lion, in fact a neighbor has him on DVD. The cat has killed every chicken and duck we had. We called fish and game; same old story: mountain lions don’t live in Georgia. Well, this one sure does. Why is it so impossible to believe that Mountain Lions can exist in pretty much every state. Some people call them Florida Panthers, well look at any map and see the approximate distance (or lack thereof) from GA or NC to FL. All the people who have sighted these cats can’t be wrong.


Jan 05, 2012 Cougars in Randolph County, NC
by: Anonymous

We have Mountain Lions in Randolph County, NC. I saw my first one in the late ’70s. Broad shoulders and camel colored, it circled road kill as my headlights came around a curve at 2am and it circled back off the road. A few years ago one was killed in the road around the Sandy Creek area. A very large cat between 100-200 pounds. Several years before this I was walking into an overgrown field along an adjoining creek and thought I had jumped a deer. Something big hit the ground but I didn’t hear a deer trotting away. Looking around I saw the backside of a large camel colored cat silently slipping out of the field and into the thick woods. He was travelling away from a lone tree that overlooked the down-slope of the field towards the creek. The large tree had its first forking limbs about twenty feet off the ground.
I would not want to face one of these cats in a foul mood but I guess the good news is that they are territorial to one another and one pair will occupy 100 square miles or roughly a 10 mile by 10 mile area.


Nov 21, 2011 hud
by: Anonymous

i live in hudson nc . i was feeding my dog one morning who stays in a chain link fence.my dogs tail was tucked between her legs. it was just at dawn.i saw to my left about 30 yards away a cougar.i stood still.then i stomped the ground. he looked at me. and looked staight ahead.then turned and ran back into the woods. my dog never tucks her tail.she usually barks at anything stange.later i learned that
a mans german shepherd dog was killed by a cougar
less than a mile away from my house.COUGARS ARE IN NC!!THERE IS NO DOUBT. I SAW IT FOR MYSELF.
I HAVE SEEN THE COUGARS IN GRANDFATHER MTN. PARK.
AND THATS WHAT I SAW HERE!!!NO ONE SEEMS TO BELIEVE ME. WHEN I TELL THEM. BUT YOU CAN BELIEVE IT. IT’S A FACT!!


Sep 08, 2011 cougar sightings in Davidson, NC
by: Anonymous

We have now had two cougar sightings in our subdivision, Bailey Springs, near Hough High School, in Davidson, NC. We border a nature preserve and the Davidson Greenway where a lot of deer are seen. After what I have read online, I find this pretty frightening. My guess is the cougar is about 100 pounds.


Mar 13, 2011 Cougars are in NC
by: Anonymous

For sure, we hear their unmistakable cry every night.

We live in 28904 zip code where also live many white-tailed deer.

The government again demonstrates its incompetence when it concludes there are no longer any mountain lions here, and to claim those that we hear and see (tracks and the animals) are from escaped pets is just nuts, there are hundreds of sightings in our area alone, even more in the Blue Ridge Mountains at large. These ain’t UFOs, you know it when you hear them. In fact, Fish and Game ignorance is a big joke to all of us who live around here.

We have also heard these animals have been introduced to our area to control our huge deer population by the government, too. Apparently, they don’t want us to know this plan.

If you doubt it, just come on up to Warne and ask somebody. Then wait until dark and listen for all the dogs to start barking…and then you’ll hear that shriek like a women screaming, an unmistakable sign of the mountain lion, the Eastern Cougar, alive and well in North Carolina.


Mar 09, 2011 Arnold schwartzakitTy
by: Ryan bachman

I don’t think the cat was domesticated. The reason being is I run along te rivers edge and follow trails around about 5-to-10-mile spans quite often. I have seen rabbits birds even cayotes remains partially hanging in trees. Even a mangled-up cow close to my house about a mile away. There is a highway coming through in the next 1 to 2 years and I believe maybe logging and grading companies are pushing it closer this way


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160 thoughts on “Regular cougar sighting in North Carolina”

  1. I live in Charlotte, NC. No lions here, as we would probably run them over. But, in our mountains? I know there used to be cougars up there, but now they are supposedly extinct. When I went to Florida and saw a Florida Panther, I was talking to a someone down there. Now I am not sure if this is true. But they said that the panthers in the NC mountains today are really the same Florida Panthers. They have tried to reintroduce the panther in the smokey mountains. He also stated there are some slight difference between the Florida panther and the NC panther from the past. I think something about color and the Florida panther being a little bit smaller.

    Again, I cannot verify any of this.

    Reply
      • Please do check that out, Michael.
        I haven’t seen a panther in the wild here, only in captivity.
        I so wish I would see one in my travels through the wilderness.
        They are our state animal and magnificent.

        Reply
    • I have to say, I live in Iredell county n.c. and we DO have COUGARS here. They have been caught on nite cams the hunters put out to catch deer. The DNR does not want to deal with this. Also have killed livestock for easy hunting.

      Reply
  2. My aunt lives in Hyde County and has been seeing cougars there for about 30-years. They live in a rural area with plenty of farms and deer, plus they back to a large hunt club. Plenty of food and dense forest for them to hide.

    Reply
  3. I live in eastern NC in Brunswick County close to Oak Island. My neighbor came over this week excited over the photo he had gotten on his trail camera he uses for deer hunting. I was amazed at the size of the Black Panthers photo he was lucky enough to get. Perfect close up shot of the entire animal. This cat I feel sure would have no problem taking down a full grown whitetail deer. I observed a full grown Cougar several years ago in Bladen County and my Dad had 2 Black Panthers cross in front of him not 1/2 mile from where I saw my big cat. With the deer and turkey population being so plentiful they sure have plenty to eat. They are very elusive animals and to actually see one is a great experience!

    Reply
    • Wow. Black cougars are pretty rare. I’d love to see that picture. If he can upload it with a comment that would be great and thanks for telling us about your sightings.

      Reply
      • He is having problems with his PC at this time. I still have not received a copy either and just asked him about it only a few minutes ago. He owns a Bull Mastif and the cat is every bit as big or bigger than this huge dog. He has a great photo.

        Reply
  4. While traveling west in Pamlico County from the Florence community two eastern cougars crossed the highway in front of me.These cats were within 50 yards of me and were running nose to tail of one another and were headed in the atlas trac land.

    Reply
  5. I was just looking at all the sightings of cougars in NC and thought I’d add those I know of in Surry and Stokes Co. also. As far back as 2010 my youngest son and I saw one crossing a field in broad day light. Without question, it was a cougar with a tail of three feet and weight of about 125 to 150 pounds and easily took strides of ten feet ( Stokes Co. ). My oldest son had to stop to keep from hitting one just two weeks later about three miles from the one I saw ( Stokes Co.), maybe the same cat. Last year a school bus driver in Pilot Mountain had to slam on the brakes to miss one early in the morning on the way to pick up kids and gave the same description as others ( Surry Co.) and just today 10/21/2013 a report of a sighting in the Madison area which is Rockingham Co. After doing a little research I’ve learned that a ten year study ended three years ago and concluded that there was not a breedable population of eastern cougars which placed them on the extent list whereby federal money has been pumped in to repopulate the eastern United States with yet another unwelcome predator. It would be nice if our local government would ask us how we feel before wasting our tax dollars. Cougars most certianly have a place and purpose just not in heavily populated areas.

    Reply
    • i see you said the government is pumping money into another unwanted predator, I assume you are talking about the red wolf. Red wolves are very timid and scared of humans, just like cougars! they are vitale in the ecosystem. Without them deer and other populations of animals will continue to grow and whent hey get to large these animals will statrve and spread disease, Thats why both red wolves and cougars are vitale. You need to remember that both these animals were here way before me or you, we are the reason they arent here anymore. we are the ones responsible for taking away their habitat. if you dont like living with them then I suggest you move!

      Reply
      • Well said Brian. The key is that the cougar was in America before the rampant human and it is the human who occupies cougar land. A little respect for the cougar is in order. And no bloody hunting of cougars with dogs please. I hate it.

        Reply
  6. i live in havelock,n.c. about 8 miles outside the city of havelock on ferry rd. and i saw a cougar about 6 years ago cross the road and walk about 40 feet from me and go into the forest. i know there are cougar here in this area.

    Reply

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