The mountain lion of the New England states is...
well according to JimHnSTL's post Missouri has moved to New England. My post makes no reference about states 1000 miles away from New England not having cougar. If Missouri has 3 confirmed deer kills by cougar then I guess you have them, but that still doesn't mean we do, we being the states in and around Connecticut. We have no physical evidence, only eyewitness accounts. Lots and lots and lots of eyewitness accounts.
"Seeing" the actual animal is usually the hard part. I lived in areas that had them, tracked them, accidentally caught them in traps, treed them, but yet I have never been lucky enough to actually see one in the wild outside of traps or dogs. Usually few people in a lifetime ever get to see one naturally in the wild, even when the population is strong.
In "New England" it always seems to be backwards of this. The animal is commonly seen but never any physical evidence. Exact opposite of what happens where they are positively known to exist.
I haven't had any problem catching them unintentially in bobcat/coyote traps in California, having dogs tree them, easily finding tracks along with scat and high numbers of kills in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Mexico. If they are there they are big enough animals to leave plenty of sign. They travel long distances without regard to their tracks being left behind. Again it is extremely hard for me to imagine how they can move around in the snow secretively.
If cats are in the area and people are out and about, someone will find the conclusive sign. Doubt there are many western hunters that haven't found sign that would be considered conclusive. A lost animal making a single pass through an area, maybe, living there, no way that hunters will not find the sign.
Here's a very neat video I took:
http://sports.webshots.com/video/3032859700039751215ClYDRB