I don't know anything about the "eastern panther", but we have cougar here in Ontario, and have probably have had them "forever". But the MNR biologists denied having them until recently. I've not come across one here in Ont. but have seen their tracks. Several years ago, I told my CO friend about this and he laughed, thinking it was a joke. I have friends who live in my prime hunting area, and they have seen a pair in winter near their house.
ALSO, back in the '70's, when I was travelling through a part of New Brunswick late at night, where I at one time lived, I nearly ran into a black cougar. I stopped and looked carefully at it, using the headlights of my car. My oldest son, who married a lady from that same area, saw one in plain daylight. He thought it was a bear when he first saw it. As he approached rather close (travelling down a 3km hill)he realized it was a "panther" or cougar. I did some research, after my sighting, and discovered there was a "black phase" cougar that had moved from Florida into NY State, in the Appalachians. The article was quite old, but it's a mere step from there into Quebec and the Eastern Seaboard provinces. New Brunswick didn't acknowledge the presence of cougar either, at the time, but they do now.
I won't go there, but Darwinian "science" is some of the "junk science" mentioned, albeit unwittingly.
Bob
www.bigbores.ca
