This photograph was not published again with all the articles being run in New England (from Boston to Bangor) today on the results of the DNA sampling.

Oakland — A scrap of hair and skin from a rock where an Oakland man reported seeing a mountain lion came from a fox, according to a state biologist.

Still, the results of DNA testing on the sample neither prove nor disprove Oakland resident Kelvin Higgins’ assertion that he saw a mountain lion in his yard on a warm day in April, according to Keel Kemper, a state wildlife biologist.

“There are a lot of possibilities,” said Kemper. “The only thing I can say emphatically is the hair he submitted is (that of) a red fox.”

The sighting was one of several reported in the area in recent years. A Sidney resident also provided a grainy photo this summer of what appeared to be a large cat. Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesman Mark Latti has said the photo was inconclusive.

Reached at his home on Wednesday, Higgins said he remains convinced that the animal he saw on a snowy rock in his yard was a mountain lion, also known as a cougar, or panther.

“There is no doubt whatsoever,” said Higgins. “It (the rock) is so close and my eyesight is very good.”

Higgins said he believes the large cat was cleaning itself after eating the fox when it left the scrap of fur on the rock.

The Oakland man said he was standing about 100 feet away when he saw the animal and watched it for 10 or perhaps 20 seconds until it spotted him and moved off into the woods behind the rock.

The animal was perhaps six or eight feet long from nose to tail and probably weighed well over 100 pounds, said Higgins.

“That is not your average house cat,” he said.

Since the sighting, Higgins said he has talked to other people in the area who believe they have seen a mountain lion, including a farmer in Albion.

Whether those sightings and others like them are indicative of a breeding cougar population in Maine, however, is doubtful, believes Kemper, who calls himself open-minded but skeptical when it comes to the idea that the big cats are recolonizing the state after an absence of almost 70 years.

“I would say we certainly do not have a viable population of mountain lions,” said Kemper.

Mountain lions are found in some western states and also in parts of Florida.

Kemper said that wherever there are breeding populations, there are also bodies.

Despite the reported sightings over the years, Kemper said there is a notable lack of such proof in Maine.

That doesn’t mean that there are no cougars in the state, however.

“We know we have mountain lions in this state. They are in people’s homes in cages,” said Kemper.

People can legally keep a mountain lion if they have the appropriate permit.

It is possible that some of the cougar sightings are of pets that have escaped, Kemper said.

“We continue to search for conclusive evidence,” he said.

Kemper also said that he has investigated cougar sightings that appear credible, and he has a Plaster of Paris cast of a large paw print from one sighting in Monmouth.

“There are some intriguing sightings that keep me open-minded,” he said.

According to a newspaper listing on the Cougar Network, a nonprofit research group based in Concord, Mass., a Cape Elizabeth woman spotted what she believed to be a mountain lion while walking through an undeveloped area of the town in 1995.

Hairs were tested and confirmed to be those of a mountain lion, according to a story that appeared in the Patriot Ledger, of Quincy, Mass.

A spokesman from Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, however, said the animal was likely a pet, according to the report.“It was a fox, but was it also food?” Kennebec Journal Augusta, Maine August 16, 2007.

What do I think?

An open-minded approach continues to be the path to take.

1) Mountain lions have been seen and tracked in the state of Maine. Check the DNA sampling from Cape Elizabeth, please. Making a cougar with a cub into “it’s a pet” is the wildest fantasy of them all.

2) A photograph (at top) of a large mystery cat exists from Sidney, Maine. Finding a sample of fox fur and linking it to the animal in that photo was a mistake. The two animals are not mutually exclusive.

3) The final solution to this mystery will not be solved by one DNA sample, or news articles with funny headlines.

4) The cats certainly don’t care what we think. They will keep on being seen, despite those debunkers who feel it is important to view this issue through discussions about belief, instead of via the more appropriate focus – past, current, and future evidence.

5) This story demonstrates the usual “Wipe” technique to try now to make the Sidney photograph disappear. But the photograph is not of a fox.