battue mentioned mountain lion in a post above. My home town is in west Georgia.The topography there is far from mountain lion country. Three or four years ago during a managed area hunt in muzzle loader season a guy shot and killed a rather large mountain lion. The feds and the state of Georgia staunchly maintain that there are NO mountain lions in the state however he saw and killed one and a big one at that.
There was an attempt by the feds to prosecute him for killing it.I never heard the outcome.
Point is you never know what you might see in the woods.
Stan in SC
GA DNR came out and investigated, took blood and tissue samples of that cougar. They issued a statement that the animal's was in such great health and parasite free, that it HAD to have been a released illegal pet. That had been their story for over decade everytime someone reported spotting one. Then USFWS took the samples and did DNA. The cougar was a "panther", as in Florida panther. DNR, when forced to admit so, stated that their MIGHT be wild cougars/panthers/mountain lions in GA, and asked the public to refrain from shooting them. The guy was never prosecuted because, under GA law, an escaped non-native animal, be it an elk, emu, or lion, is legal to kill if you are legally hunting.
