For most of us in the eastern 2/3s of the country Cougar or Mountain Lion is the last thing on our mind when we wander off into the woods. But their range is greatly increasing. Over the last 20 years or so we've seen game animal populations explode off the charts. Coyote numbers have increased in response as have the number of Bald Eagles. It only seems natural that the explosion in the deer population would benefit the lion population. More food means more kittens yielding more adults and so on. As numbers increase range has to expand and since every other animal has adapted pretty darn well to urbanization it's hard to imagine that lions wouldn't adapt to some extent.
While the odds of running into a Cougar are pretty remote the opportunity is still out there so we need to keep it in the back of our head. And just because confirmed sightings have not been made in your state doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means they haven't been sighted....yet. They've even been confirmed in Chicago! You can easily see how the population is expanding their range on this map.
http://www.easterncougarnet.org/bigpicture.html
http://www.cougarnet.org/cmw-desc/Chicago-08.htm
