As wildlife officials steadfastly dismiss Northeastern cougar sightings as misidentifications and mirages, big-cat witnesses keep coming forward from the Carolinas to Canada’s Maritime Provinces. And despite what the experts say, accepted Eastern cougar evidence has been gathered in the region, some as close as the Quabbin Reservation and the Goshen State Forest. So, although any reasonable investigator would admit there have been innocent misidentifications as well as intentional cougar hoaxes, it’s impossible to totally deny that big cats could make a comeback in New England, due to reforestation and the steady increase of our whitetail-deer density. Cougars gravitate to regions with high deer densities.

This week, the seventh straight we’ve devoted to cougar talk, let’s focus on a couple of specific topics: 1.) the potential presence of cougars in the Quabbin wilderness and 2.) the curious number of black-panther sightings, given that Eastern cougars are not supposed to be black. I’ve fielded a couple of e-mails from Quabbin-area eyewitnesses, which should not be shocking news in light of the fact that a sample gathered on that state reservation in 1997 was scientifically identified as cougar scat. Also, two credible 1956 sightings of a black panther by local residents have been reported here, one in Athol, the other in Montague. So it’s worthy of further discussion.

First, the Quabbin, where Kenneth Matthews had a tale to tell on a handwritten letter. Matthews lives on Wheeler Avenue in Orange and identifies himself as “a farmer, hunter, trapper and lumberman.” At age 92, he says “he still hunts and keeps a good garden.” Sounds legit.

His story goes back 30 years, to the mid-1970s, when he was on his way to work about a mile inside Gate 35 at the Quabbin. “I saw five deer cross the road in front of me and not more than 10 yards behind them were two of these large cats. They were dark brown; the larger one was sort of blackish on the shoulders, neck and head. I would estimate their weight at between 80 and 120 pounds. I have seen their tracks since then while fishing in Warwick.”

Another sighting not far from Matthews’ but a generation earlier was reported by Sterling Clark, who sent an e-mail about a big-cat sighting by he and his parents on Route 202 heading toward New Salem. “Probably 50 years, ago my parents and I were returning from Worcester on Route 122 and turned left onto Route 202. In a desolate area of that highway, before reaching New Salem, a huge cat bounded out of the woods on what would be the Quabbin area side, ran across the road in front of our car and bounded up a steep bank and out of sight like it was nothing. … It’s a sight I’ll never forget.”

Although the Eastern Cougar Foundation — “a non-profit, science-based, volunteer-run organization dedicated to recovery of cougars as the top predators in eastern North America” — does not accept sightings as evidence, it was involved in the aforementioned 1997 Quabbin scat-identification process. The sample was gathered by animal tracker John McCarter in April 1997 and tested first by George Amato of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, then by Dr. Melanie Culver of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Both scientific studies, relying on DNA analysis, identified the sample as cougar scat. Fecal analysis determined the cat had eaten a beaver.

Hmmmmm? Indisputable evidence, right?

Not so fast.

Although a November 2000 MassWildlife press release acknowledged the scat had been deposited at the Quabbin by a “free-ranging animal and not placed there as part of some elaborate hoax,” spokeswoman Susan Langlois would not accept the possibility that it had been dropped by a “wild” cougar.

“Since there has been no additional hard evidence collected in the ensuing three years, the escape or release theory looms,” she said. “One could speculate that a captive cougar escaped or was released in the area and survived long enough to feed on a beaver and leave this tangible evidence of its presence.”

The Quabbin sample identified as cougar scat is one of four confirmed Northeastern scat samples found since 1992 and listed on the Eastern Cougar Foundation’s Web site. Two of the others were discovered in Canada — one in central New Brunswick in 1992, the other in Ontario in 1999 — while the fourth was recovered by Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department agents around Craftsbury. The Foundation also lists the 1976 killing of a male cougar that had killed sheep, then the capture of a pregnant female two days later in Pocahontas County, W.V. Confirmed tracks have been identified since 1990 in Virginia, Maine and West Virginia. Around 1990, a track left in a Goshen State Forest mud puddle was identified as a “suspected” cougar track by wildlife biologist Virginia Fifield, then stationed in the Pioneer Valley to investigate cougar sightings.

Do we really need more evidence that cougars exist on the Eastern Seaboard? Depends on who you’re talking to. But at the very least it is appropriate to discuss the topic.

As for the discussion of black panthers in the Northeast, well, that gets a little sketchier. According to experts, black cougars or panthers are found only in South America, not North America, where cougars have tan coats with tints ranging from yellowish to reddish to grayish. That said, “sightings” of large black cats are not unusual in the Northeast, including the two 1956 reports chronicled here recently.

Sightings of big black cats are also common in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, according to Mark Pulsifer, author of “The Eastern Cougar in Nova Scotia,” an article published in the 1992 Summer/Fall issue of “Conservation,” the official publication of Nova Scotia’s Department of Natural Resources. Pulsifer found Nova Scotia cougar sightings to be quite consistent, as nearly all witnesses reported seeing a large feline animal, “tawny to black in color with a long, curved tail. Of special interest is the unusually high number of black or melanistic cougars reported in the province. Black cougars have been reported 42 times in Nova Scotia and 49 times in New Brunswick. In South America, where the black form is endemic, it is considered very rare. This unusually high rate of observed melanism in Nova Scotia has led some to suspect that the dark coloration of these animals is due to back lighting and/or the result of a wet pelt.”

Can there be any doubt there have been additional black-panther sightings reported in the Maritime Provinces since Pulsifer’s article appeared 14 years ago? Take it to the bank — just one more fascinating element of the cougar discussion that makes it captivating.

The fact is that little is known of the Eastern cougar because it vanished so long ago. The prevailing wisdom is that there are three species of North American cougars, the Western cougar, Eastern cougar and Florida panther. However, some scientists now believe all three may be the same species, varying in size slightly according to where they live. A rule of thumb with deer is that they get bigger the farther north they live, and the same could be true of cougars. So, perhaps the Florida panther, though slightly smaller than its supposed cousins, is the same animal. Before that question can be answered, someone’s going to have to come up with an Eastern cougar, and that has been no easy task for the past century. Some believe that day is quickly approaching; others dig in their feet and say it’ll never happen. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Said an Eastern Cougar Foundation expert: “I doudt there are any pure Eastern Cougars left.”

Sounds reasonable.