Let me make certain I follow your "logic"
Your presumption: "The NPS would not admit there are mountain lions in GSMNP, even if they were there."
Your conclusion: "Thus, there MUST be mountain lions in GSMNP."
Please understand why I have difficulty following this train of thought.
I'll say it again: There are about 200 cougars in Florida, close to a MINIMUM number to maintain a breeding colony.
As of early August of this year, 13 of them have been killed by motor vehicles THIS YEAR ALONE.
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2019/08/2...killed-by-car/
How many cougars have been killed by autos in the Appalachians in the last 50 years?
Which do you think is the more likely explanation for the fact that the answer is ZERO?
1) A breeding colony of cougars in the Appalachians has, over the space of decades, completely avoided something the colony in Florida experiences routinely, year after year.
2) There is not a breeding colony of cougars in the Appalachians.
You overlook a VERY simple and basic fact
Quote:
strong case for credible mountain lion sightings in the Eastern US and Canada
"Sightings" of cougars does NOT equal a breeding colony.
Male cougars, looking for love in all the wrong places, have wandered all the way from South Dakota to Connecticut.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-m...76Q5ZE20110727
Exotic cats escape or are released into the wild -- invariably with tragic results
http://venturacountytrails.org/News/...d/NewsPage.htm
(if you want to insist that this proves their is a breeding colony of tigers in the LA area, feel free).
There is no dispute whatsoever that cougars have been sighted in the eastern US.
But there is no evidence (and paranoia is not evidence) of a decades-long breeding colony north of Florida. Period.