Back in the mid 80's while I was attending college in the westernmost part of Massachusetts, I went bowhunting in the mountains that surrounded the college town. While walking out one day after a morning hunt, something caught my attention that wasn't quite right moving behind a huge pile of slash on the ground. A few seconds later, out comes a cow moose not 15 yards away and staring right at me. When I returned to town and back to the house, I called the State and told them what I had seen. The man on the other line that I was transferred to asked me if I was sure what I had seen, because according to the State, there were no moose in massachusetts. Well low and behold, we now have a thriving moose population that are starting to cause problems.
Back in 1992, I was in Maine hunting a bear bait one evening, and about an hour or so before dark I caught a glimpse of something move is the brush about 40 yards from my position. Seconds later, a wolf, yes a wolf, cruised through my set up checking my bait and moved off after passing not 5 yards from my stand. At dark as I was just shoving my boat off as I was on a lake, That wolf let out the most beautiful calls I have ever heard that made my hair on the back of my next stand straight up. Upon returning to town, I once again called the State to inform them of what i had witnessed. Once again, I was asked if I was sure, because according to the State, there are no wolf in Maine. Well not ten years later, confirmation came when a trapper produced a confirmed wolf. Now the State not only acnowledges that their are wolf in Maine, but have shut down the coyote snare program to protect the wolf.
Also back in the early 90's, i was driving home one evening in a semi-rural suburb of boston. As I rounded a bend my headlights caught something on the side of the road. Immediately, 3 coyotes ran across the road and dissappeared. The next day i called the state yet again to report what i had seen and I was told that it must have been someones pets, as there are no coyotes in eastern massachusetts. Not 5 years later, I was averaging killing 20 a year not 3 miles from my first sighting.
My point is this. Just because the so called "experts" say something isn't so, means nothing. Take it from me, i have three nothings under my belt, that are all somethings now. And as far as not having the space to hold cougars....thats just bull crap. The northeast has PLENTY of BIG WOODS. To say that we know about anything and everything that is roaming those woods is foolish. Their is no doubt that we have cougars here, as few as their numbers may be. The sightings and reports are becoming more frequent, and it won't be long now before all the nay-sayers will be eating crow.