My take. My views follow that of the penn state proffessor who has been fllowing the phenom for decades. Cougar sightings increased darmatically in the 1970's at the same time our deer herds were getting very large. But very suddenly....after close to 70 years with little to no sightings reported. He believes that IF they are here they are a western variety and not the eastern which are now extinct. Problem is, that someone must have introduced them here (probably in the late 1970's). There is your scandal, and the reasons for any cover ups. Obvious candidate would be the PGC.