# Recent Record of a Cougar (Puma concolor) in Louisiana, with Notes on Diet, Based on Analysis of Fecal Materials

> A biologist glimpsed a cougar on a road verge in southern Louisiana, where no cougar had been confirmed in decades. The next morning a park naturalist found a large scat at the spot, and its DNA confirmed the cat and showed it had eaten a domestic dog and an eastern cottontail. The authors weigh whether the animal came from a hidden swamp population, from Texas, or from captivity.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2004-leberg-carloss-recent-record-cougar-puma/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** Paul L. Leberg, Michael R. Carloss, Larry J. Dugas, Kristine L. Pilgrim, L. Scott Mills, M. Clay Green and Daniel Scognamillo
- **Year published:** 2004
- **Journal or source:** Southeastern Naturalist
- **Full citation:** Leberg, P. L., Carloss, M. R., Dugas, L. J., Pilgrim, K. L., Mills, L. S., Green, M. C. and Scognamillo, D. 2004. Recent record of a cougar (Puma concolor) in Louisiana, with notes on diet, based on analysis of fecal materials. Southeastern Naturalist 3(4): 653–658.
- **DOI:** 10.1656/1528-7092(2004)003[0653:RROACP]2.0.CO;2
- **Access status:** Hosted (freely available elsewhere)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2004_Leberg_and_Carloss_etal_recent-record-of-a-cougar-with-notes-on-diet-based-on-analysis-of-fecal-materials.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > Mountain lion
- **Region:** North America > United States
- **Tracking:** Scat; Tracking; Tracks and signs identification
- **Behaviour and ecology:** Behaviour; Feeding
- **Methods and technology:** Descriptive statistics; Direct observation; DNA
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Not reported
- **Discipline:** Behaviour and ecology; Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 2004

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: cougar, also called mountain lion or puma (Puma concolor); the paper discusses the Florida panther subspecies (P. c. coryi), federally listed as endangered and historically present in Louisiana, and the Texas subspecies (P. c. stanleyana). Food remains found in the scat: domestic dog (Canis familiaris) and eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus). In the study area but not studied: free-ranging dogs and eastern cottontails, both seen around the park.
- **Location and habitat:** Near the entrance of Lake Fausse Pointe State Park (2400 ha), St. Martin Parish, southern Louisiana, United States (about N 30° 03.837’, W 91° 36.436’), next to the Atchafalaya River Basin. Bottomland hardwood forest and cypress (Taxodium distichum) swamp; the animal was on the mowed shoulder of an asphalt road, about 25 m from forest. The Atchafalaya Basin and adjacent swamps and bottomland forests (about 3600 km²) may be the largest continuous forested wetland in North America. Earlier records discussed from Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Texas, Florida, southern Illinois and Missouri.
- **Topics:** cougar occurrence record outside its known range; verifying sightings with “hard” evidence (photograph, carcass, live capture, scat or plaster cast of a track); scat collection and measurement; DNA species identification from scat; mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype and origin of the animal (wild or captive); diet from scat (DNA and hair scale patterns); prey of cougars; possible remnant Florida panther population versus dispersal from Texas; road mortality; inbreeding risk in small populations. The paper spells the park both “Lake Fausse Pointe” and “Lake Fausse Point”. The hair-drying temperature is printed as 16 °C, which seems low for oven drying; reported here as printed.
- **Statistics or models:** Descriptive only: scat measurements from a photograph, and a rough calculation (using Florida panther density and road-kill rates) that the Atchafalaya Basin could hold up to 35 cougars, which would give an expected road kill every 2 to 3 years.
- **Data type:** New field data: one sighting on 23 April 2002 at about 20:15, and one scat collected the next morning at about 07:00. Laboratory DNA and hair analysis.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Cougars are often reported across the southeastern United States, but outside Florida and Texas there is little physical proof. In Louisiana the last documented death of a cougar was in 1965, and that animal may have come from captivity.

On the evening of 23 April 2002, one of the authors, a biologist with 18 years of field experience in southern Louisiana, and a passenger saw a cougar on a road verge near the entrance of Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. They watched the animal for about 20 to 30 seconds, coming within 9 m, before it trotted towards the forest.

The next morning the park naturalist searched the spot and found a large scat full of hair. The team:

- Measured the scat from a photograph and stored samples in two collections.

- Identified the species from DNA in the scat, using a published method for telling North American cats apart.

- Identified the prey from a second DNA product and by comparing 20 hairs from the scat with a reference collection of local mammals under a microscope. The person doing the hair analysis did not know the DNA results.

### 2. What they found

- The scat: about 12 cm long and 8 cm wide as it lay on the ground, with segments 1.9 to 2.6 cm across and at least 18 cm of visible segments in total.

- The species: the DNA matched cougar. Its haplotype (a DNA type passed down the mother’s line) is the one almost all North American cougars carry and is rare south of Nicaragua.

- The diet: a second DNA product was very similar to domestic dog. Hair scale patterns matched both domestic dog and eastern cottontail. The authors believe the cougar had recently eaten both. Cottontails are often seen around the park, and free-ranging dogs occasionally.

- The origin: a South American haplotype would have proved a captive origin, but this common North American type cannot tell a wild animal from one released by people.

### 3. What they concluded

- The record is strong evidence of a cougar in southern Louisiana; the authors know of no other strong evidence for the state in the previous 25 years.

- Wherever the animal came from, it was successfully eating locally occurring prey.

- A hidden remnant population of the endangered Florida panther is unlikely. If the basin held about 35 cougars at Florida densities, road kills would be expected every 2 to 3 years, yet none have been found in at least 50 years. Such a small population would also risk severe inbreeding if isolated for long.

- It is plausible that the cougar dispersed from the expanding Texas population. Cougars have been collected within 275 km of the park, and the species has been recorded dispersing up to 483 km. Available genetic markers cannot tell the two groups apart.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

After the sighting, the park naturalist searched the immediate area the next morning for signs of the animal and found the scat, which was photographed, measured and collected. The scat’s identity was confirmed by DNA rather than by its appearance. No tracks or trailing were reported. The authors list a plaster cast of a track among the kinds of “hard” evidence used to confirm cougars, and mention a track cast made in northeastern Louisiana in 1975.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. Nothing is said about the naturalist’s tracking experience. The observer of the sighting is described as a professional biologist with 18 years of field experience; this was not validated.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- DNA extraction and restriction digestion of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) region of mitochondrial DNA, to identify the cat species, with sequences deposited in GenBank.

- Prey DNA picked up alongside the predator’s DNA from the same scat.

- Hair scale impressions made in white glue and in “nail shine” on microscope slides, compared with a reference collection of local mammals, done blind to the DNA results.

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- A remnant cougar population in southern Louisiana’s swamps would matter for conservation, because the subspecies historically found there is federally listed as endangered.

- The lack of road kills argues against such a population, and cougars seen in Louisiana may instead be dispersers from Texas.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- A prompt search of the sighting spot the next morning turned a brief sighting into physical evidence. Scats like this one can carry DNA of both the animal that left them and what they ate.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Recent Record of a Cougar (Puma concolor) in Louisiana, with Notes on Diet, Based on Analysis of Fecal Materials (Leberg and Carloss et al., 2004). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2004-leberg-carloss-recent-record-cougar-puma/