Dr. Mark Elbroch

And so, for instance, their primary prey, which in New England would be deer, would be pooping in different places.

They'd be hiding in different places.

And it really spreads nutrients across the landscape in different ways than in their absence.

And those fear effects are, you know, really important for us as well.

You know, we just did a really cool study out where I live in Washington State, very much like New England and western Washington, at least in terms of a rural landscape.

But we looked at the impact that the local mountain lions were having on deer collisions with people and their cars.

And we found that the areas where the mountain lions were close to the highways were

and they were scaring deer away from them, they were reducing local deer collisions with cars by 76%.

I mean, that's a huge number, and it translates into millions of dollars of savings for local communities.

And that's the kind of thing that that fear can create on the landscape.

I wish it were true.

You know, I lived in New England much of my life as well.

And in fact, while I was in New England, I think I investigated 53 sightings, you know, going around to verify whether these were truly mountain lions or not.

And one of them ended up being a mountain lion.

But, you know...

Even when they have been verified as mountain lion, those that have predominantly been documented have been from other places.

We expect that they were exotic pets that were released into the wild.

Now, all that said, occasionally...

A wild mountain lion does make it to New England.

And I think the most exciting example of that was in 2011, when a mountain lion that we know originated from the Black Hills of South Dakota made it all the way to the East Coast.