For the last one hundred years, the puma-also known as catamount, panther, cougar, and mountain lion-has been extinct east of the Mississippi River. Or has it? In the early 1970s, an endangered handful of these 150-pound wildcats was discovered living deep in the palmetto jungle of the Florida Everglades. But elsewhere, and despite a long litany of sightings, tracks, and more recently photographs and video footage, most wildlife biologists and game department officials from New England to the Great Lakes flatly dismiss any notion that the "eastern puma" survives anywhere else in this increasingly fragmented and suburbanized country.
When the most compelling body of evidence yet surfaces to suggest that the government's experts might be wrong, Bob Butz sets out to discover the truth behind what is perhaps the most mythic and misunderstood predator in North America. The result is a weird and wacky glimpse at the people and politics surrounding the so-called "eastern puma." Why do state and federal biologists so often dismiss evidence that pumas are here? Is that denial leaving people at risk? Who are the characters out there looking for pumas-and at what cost to the cat and, ultimately, themselves? The answers reveal a mystery greater and far more complex than anyone ever imagined. It will also leave readers examining their own beliefs.
A journey into the woods, a road trip, a meditation, and an expose, Beast of Never, Cat of God chronicles the search for cougar, while exploring the implications, the myths, and the reality of the creature. It's one man's hunt for truth and wilderness in a place-the East-where true wilderness is thought not to exist.


Catamount, panther, cougar, mountain lion, puma: This animal was once the most widely distributed carnivore on our continent, ranging from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Yukon to the tip of South America. Now, while populations remain stable west of the Rockies, everything on the books states that the puma was essentially eradicated east of the Mississippi shortly after the turn of the century.
Only, Bob Butz is not so sure. When controversial evidence surfaces to suggest that pumas exist in his neck of the woods--Northern Michigan-it sparked renewed and heated discussion among cynics and believers throughout the East. The phenomenon of this magical, mythical creature--one that seems to represent all that is renegade in this world--will not die. So why, asks Butz, do wildlife officials and game departments from the Maritime states to New England dismiss the notion?
Part meditation, part probing journalism, BEAST OF NEVER, CAT OF GOD chronicles the search for cougar, while exploring the implications, the myths, and the reality of the creature. It's a hunt for truth and wilderness in a place- the East-where true wilderness is thought not to exist.