Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

Recent columns

• Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
• Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
• Elk advocate finally gets his day
• Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
• Column archive

Bill's Mailbag

• Remembering A. Willis Robertson
• Putting down a bear cub brings complaint
• Mail archive

Bill's Field Reports

• Eagles are up; black rail are down
• A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
• Field reports archive

Resources

• Trout stocking schedule

BILL: Believe it, Bill. It was about a year ago that my wife, her parents and I were sitting on the back porch and spotted a panther in the field behind the house. I wouldn’t have believed it either, except we saw it.

We were watching 15-plus deer out in an open field in Blue Ridge between two wooded areas. The cat came out of the woods to the left and bounded across the field chasing some type of small prey. We couldn’t tell what it was because the grass was too high. It was playing with it like cats do as it passed through the deer and into the woods on the right.

The deer froze in their tracks and were fortunate that the cat was occupied. The cat’s proximity to the deer gave us a good fix on its size, which was a good 6- to 7-feet form nose to the tip of its long tail. It was black, or close to it.

I grew up in a newspaper family. Dad was editor of the Charlotte Observer. He was a stickler for the truth. Which is what you’re now getting.

And just in case you are curious, there was no alcohol involved in this incident. We were all enjoying freshly brewed ice tea.

BILL: We just finished reading your article concerning cougars in Virginia. Since we had contact with you several years ago, we are a little puzzled as to why you didn’t include the Eastern Puma Research Network also as a major source of data and information for the general public.

The Eastern Puma Research Network was organized in 1965. It is the oldest and largest of all eastern mountain lion wildlife study groups, numbering about 450 members. Filed researches are active in 14 states.

We publish a free flyer entitled “All You Need to Know About the Eastern Cougar.” The flyer is free to anyone who sends a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope to Eastern Puma Research Network, HC 30 Box 2233, Maysville, WV 26833.

JOHN: Sorry for the oversight of not mentioning your organization in my column. I also left out reference to the Cougar Network (cougarnet.org). See Mark Dowling’s tongue-in-cheek letter below.

BILL: I thought you might find this amusing.

The Center of Disease Control in Washington D.C. reports a new disease that plagues mankind. Although it has been floating around east of the Mississippi for several decades, it has only recently been detected. Much of it is still an enigma.

DISEASE: Cougaritis.

PATHOGEN: Undetermined; it seems to be a form of dementia but microbial vectors are suspected.

VICTIMS: Humans only.

VECTORS: Can be spread by the media. Whole families have been afflicted -- communicable pathogens or genetic origin?

RESERVOIR: Occurs mostly among adults in rural and some urban communities where exposure to cougar lore exists. The egocentric mind has been found to be most vulnerable when sylvan exposure coincides with lack of experience and education. However, a Ph.D. case and a wildlife biologist case have been observed.

DISTRIBUTION: Eastern USA and possibly in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Reports are extremely rare in the latter.

SYMPTOMS: Victims manifest fantasies of cougaria where various animals and their signs become cougarogenic. House cats, coyotes, and dog tracks generate dillusionary responses. Extreme cases have been observed fabricating spontaneous cougars at will and mumbling of diabolical conspiracies by various agencies attempting to stifle them. This aspect of the disease is a form of paranoia, a dementia.

TREATMENT: Surprisingly, this abberation is easily cured with ample exposure to pure science and truth. Cougaritis was first discovered by J. A. Lankalis. It is not to be confused with cougarmania, which is an intense admiration of cougars.

NOTE: Dowling recently reported that widely circulated photos of a mountain lion on a residential deck in Maine were a hoax. “The photos are authentic, but the incident occurred in Lander, Wyoming, not Maine,” said Dowling.

BILL: I serve with Rick Reynolds (DGIF biologist) on the state mammals status committee in Richmond and I can affirm all that he states in your quotes (about the lack of proof of mountain lions in Virginia). We have no hair, scats, bodies, pictures to confirm any reported sighting. Like Rick says, the reports tend to cycle with one then another and so on. A few years back two were captured in Virginia and these were released pet captives.

BILL: Any idea on when the audit on the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is coming out? Each week we hear it is coming, but it never shows up. Wondering if it is so bad they are trying to do damage control?

STANLEY: You aren’t the only one puzzled over why it is taking so long for the state auditor to complete the investigation of the DGIF. My sources say the auditor still is interviewing employees of the agency. Let’s hope that the delay means the auditor is doing a thorough and fair job, leaving no stones unturned.