The Adirondack Land Trust invites speakers to share their knowledge for educational purposes. The views and opinions expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Adirondack Land Trust. 

Could the return of an apex predator mean a healthier future for northeastern forests? The Adirondack Land Trust welcomed Renee Seacor from the environmental advocacy organization Mighty Earth for a January 2026 virtual event that considered what the restoration of catamounts could mean for forests, wildlife, and communities across the northeastern United States. 

Watch Renee’s presentation above—including video of catamounts in the wild—which focuses on the scientific, ecological, and social factors involved in how humans and catamounts could successfully coexist to create more resilient forest ecosystems. Below, you can find an extended Q&A with Renee, as well as additional resources to learn more about catamounts. 

1. Can you address the potential for interactions between people and catamounts? 

Mountain lions are typically stealthy and people-avoidant, and most people living in mountain lion country never see one. When interactions do occur, they are usually brief, such as a sighting from a distance or a mountain lion moving away. Coexistence strategies focus on preventing negative encounters. 

Best practices when recreating in mountain lion country include being especially aware at dawn and dusk (when mountain lions are most active), hiking in groups when possible, making noise to alert wildlife to your presence, and wearing bright or contrasting clothing. If you encounter a mountain lion, don’t run, make yourself appear larger, back away slowly, and report any unusual behavior to wildlife authorities. 

2. How successful are GPS collar tracking devices currently used with mountain lions? 

Modern GPS collars are generally highly effective for studying mountain lions. They provide crucial data on movements, survival, population density, and predation. Issues with GPS collars do still exist, and challenges such as cost, battery life, and signal range come into play. In published mountain lion studies, average GPS fix success commonly falls around 85 to 95 percent. The variation depends on terrain, vegetation density, collar programming intervals, and individual animal behavior. 

3. Reported sightings of mountain lions in the Northeast and Upper Midwest seem to be misidentifications. What makes identification challenging? 

Most reported sightings in the Northeast are not confirmable as mountain lions. Misidentifications are common, often involving bobcats, domestic cats, coyotes, dogs, or issues of scale, lighting, and length of observation. 

In the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, sightings are still rare, but they are more likely to occur and more likely to be confirmed due to closer proximity to breeding populations. Notably, northern Michigan recently documented its first confirmed breeding event in decades. 

In the Northeast, sightings of long-distance dispersers are biologically possible but extremely rare. Clear photos or video with scale, tracks with measurements, or DNA from scat or hair are what move a reported mountain lion sighting from “possible” to “confirmed.” 

4. How do we explain the sightings of catamounts in Vermont? 

Most reported sightings in Vermont and throughout the Northeast turn out to be misidentifications, or in rare cases, escaped captive animals. There is also the possibility of transient dispersers, almost always young males, passing through the region. However, this has only been conclusively documented in the Northeast once in recent decades (the Connecticut cougar). 

If someone has strong video or physical evidence, we recommend reporting it to state wildlife agencies for follow-up. Mighty Earth is also happy to review documentation and help direct it to appropriate experts. 

5. Is there any discussion about bringing back catamounts in State Wildlife Action Plans across the Northeast? 

State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) are an important opportunity for states to examine missing species and consider species restoration as part of a broader conservation strategy. However, many state wildlife agencies have focused primarily on species that are currently present within their borders in SWAPs. 

Mighty Earth encourages state wildlife agencies to consider including native, formerly present species, such as catamounts, in future planning discussions, including long-term habitat considerations and feasibility assessments. 

6. Have the ecological contributions of carcasses, or carrion, left by catamounts been compared in ecosystems with catamounts versus those without? 

There’s strong evidence that pumas increase carrion availability to scavengers because they often leave partially consumed prey that becomes food and habitat for many other species. Studies at puma kill sites document high scavenger use and diversity—dozens of vertebrate scavengers, plus many invertebrates—and reviews summarize hundreds of documented puma-linked scavenger interactions.  

In terms of numerical contribution, researchers estimate that pumas provide roughly 16 pounds of carcass meat per 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) to their ecological communities. Scaled across their approximately 8.8 million square kilometer range in North and South America, pumas are estimated to contribute around 3.3 million pounds of meat per day to other animals through carrion provisioning. 

7. How long did the catamount journey take in Heart of a Lion: A Lone Cat’s Walk Across America? 

The “Connecticut cougar,” whose origin was traced to the Black Hills of South Dakota, appears to have dispersed as an adolescent, likely leaving its natal range between July and September 2009 at roughly 1.5 years old. He was struck and killed by a vehicle in Connecticut, more than 1,500 miles away, in June 2011. That places the journey at roughly 18 months, though the exact timeline can’t be fully reconstructed because the animal was not wearing a GPS collar. 

8. How does public support for the reintroduction of the Eastern timber wolf compare to public support for catamounts? 

Survey research shows that public support for large carnivore restoration is strongly shaped by perceived benefits versus perceived risks, and attitudes can differ by species. One recent large, survey-based study of residents across the Eastern U.S. examined support drivers for cougar restoration and red wolf restoration and found strong interest in both, though people raise different concerns for each species. 

Additional polling indicates that public support for catamount restoration across the Northeast is particularly strong, averaging roughly a 10:1 ratio of support to opposition, meaning that for every one person opposed, about 10 express support. 

Additional Resources

Renee Seacor is the Rewilding Director for Mighty Earth (mightyearth.org), an environmental advocacy organization, where she oversees the Bring Catamounts Home campaign to restore catamounts to the forests of the northeastern United States. She previously served as the carnivore conservation director at Project Coyote, advocating for peaceful coexistence with North America’s wild carnivore species. Renee Seacor is also a member of the Adirondack Land Trust’s Next Generation Council, a volunteer advisory board of professionals in their 20s and 30s committed to conservation. Learn more about Renee’s work at bringcatamountshome.org and check out Mighty Earth’s email updates to stay informed about this initiative.