I moved to the North Georgia Mountains about 6 years ago. From the 1st day my new neighbors warned my family and me of mountain lions. At first I discounted these stories and felt that this crazy old lady was just trying to scare my kids.
Jump forward to last year.
My wife now works at the local newspaper. She had a local farmer come in with photos of a calf kill he clamed was done by a mointain lion. He said he walked up on the cat as it was feeding on the kill. This man has tons of credabilty because he not only is a farmer but a wildlife biologist as well. He documented everything including a casting of a print left by the cat and gave it over to the Georgia DNR. Later the DNR came out and conducted thier own investigation and concluded that it was indeed a Mountain Lion but this did not prove existance of a population of cats in Georgia. Their explanation is that it is probably someones exotic pet that got out. The farmer checked with everyone who lives in the area and of course no one has or had a mointain lion pet.
(Opion Alert)
Game managers don't want to admit to a population shift until it is substanble because admiting it brings attention to it. Attention causes fear, curiosity, etc...
(Opion Alert End)
One thing that is FACT. There is at least one mointain lion in the North Georgia Mountains.