MIDCOAST VILLAGER • April 6, 2026
I am certain that I saw a mountain lion in 2014 in Montville. There are few wildlife questions in Maine that stir as much quiet conviction, and quiet skepticism, as the enduring belief that mountain lions, long thought gone from the state, still move through its forests. Officially, the matter is settled. The last confirmed mountain lion in Maine was killed in 1938. In 2018, federal authorities declared the eastern cougar extinct. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife maintains there is no evidence of a breeding population within the state. And yet, across decades, and continuing into recent years, Mainers have continued to report seeing them.