Moose Droppings

 Wildlife experts in Moore County say they now have evidence that a large cat — about the size of a cougar — is roaming in the area.

Last week, Moore County Animal Control observed the tracks of a large cat near a horse farm off Youngs Road in Southern Pines. Wildlife experts took photographs and measurements.
“It’s a large cat of some sort,” said Paul Tillman, a wildlife control agent with Moore County Animal Control. “We don’t know what it is.”

There were several unconfirmed sightings of what people said was a mountain lion in different parts of Moore County during the summer.

Tillman said people should not panic. Experts say that if there is a large cat like a mountain lion in the area, it is unlikely that it would attack humans.

“People live with cougars out West every day,” said David Rabon, endangered species biologist with U.S. Fish and Wildlife. “The key is to be cautious. … We don’t want the villagers out there with pitchforks and guns.”

Tillman and his father, Robert, hope to capture the animal. The tracks measure about five inches long and four inches wide — roughly the size of a human hand.

“Visual sightings are one thing,” Tillman said. “This is something different. This is the first tangible evidence, proof of a large cat.”

A common conspiracy theory is that a government wildlife agency stocked the creature in to control some other wildlife population in this case it’s the bulging deer herd.

 Dr. Tom Lineberger recalls a conversation he had with the forestry or wildlife worker.

“He wasn’t a patient of mine,” Lineberger said. “I was just doing his stress test, and we were just chatting while he was on a treadmill.”

While he is not sure how the topic came up — it may have been the recent bear sightings in Southern Pines — the wildlife agent described some of the carnivore populations in the county.

“He told me there were six bears in Moore County that roamed around the county, migrated around,” Lineberger said. “He said something like several hundred coyotes were here, and the forest service or another group, they had released two mountain lions in Moore County.”

Lineberger couldn’t say for sure, but he recalls that the reason given was to control the deer population.

“What I remember is that the question probably arose, ‘Why would you do that? Why would you release mountain lions in Moore County?’” Lineberger said. “And it wasn’t to control the golfers.”

While Lineberger initially thought the worker was from the U.S. Forest Service, he is not positive that is the case.

“What I do remember is the guy told me he’d been working for whoever it was for 20, 25 years, and it was certainly a government agency,” Lineberger said. “I just can’t remember which one.”

A phone call to Terry Seyden, spokesman for the National Forest of North Carolina, which is part of the U.S. Forest Service, suggested that the patient could not have been a forest worker.

Seyden pointed out that there is no national forest land in Moore County and that the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is responsible for stocking or restocking animals.

“We manage the habitat, and the state has the actual responsibility for managing the animals,” he said.

Wib Owen, section manager in charge of the Wildlife and Land Management Section of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, said that the agency played no role in releasing mountain lions into the state.

“First of all, the Wildlife Commission has not stocked any cougars or have any plans to stock cougars to control the deer population,” Owen said.

Owen said any claims that the government releases mountain lions are rumors, and this claim is no different.

“No. There’s no government agency in North Carolina who has released mountain lions,” Owen said. “I don’t know who this guy was or why he told the doctor that, but that just hasn’t happened.”

While other wildlife officials have questioned whether recent sightings are of mountain lions, Owen was more willing to accept that they could be true.

“We have folks who have cougars illegally,” Owen said. “We’ve confiscated some over the years, and sometimes these critters that are held escape or they’re released. People get them and realize they’re not good pets. So we feel that some of the sightings are these escaped pets.”

He offered the disclaimer that the Wildlife Commission doesn’t feel there are breeding populations of mountain lions in North Carolina.

“This is something we handle every year,” Owen said. “We get reports every year. And I’ve given you the Wildlife Commission’s stance on this.”

As for Lineberger, he stands by what he remembers from his conversation.

“I’m 100 percent sure this guy wasn’t just boasting and making up a story,” he said. “I’m sure it’s true from what he told me.”

Did a wildlife agency release cougars or coyotes for that matter? Although I like to believe that they didn’t the fact that over the past few years wolves have been stocked in many states including North Carolina makes me stop and think. We’ll continue to follow this story and see what they find.