From the producers of Trekkit ATV comes the next adventure.
Phantom Prowler
The Hunt for the Eastern Cougar
StatusUnder Development
Declared extinct. Ask around.
The United States has ruled the eastern cougar extinct.
Canada’s official answer is “data deficient”.
Ryan says he has seen one, twice.
Official status, and sightings
- Declared extinct
- Data deficient
- Seen
The premise
The record says
- 1932. A cougar is reported shot near Mundleville, New Brunswick. All that survives is a photograph of its skin.
- 1938. The last eastern cougar the United States accepts is trapped on the Maine and Quebec border. It is in the New Brunswick Museum.
- 1998. Canada’s scientific committee files the eastern cougar under “data deficient”.
- 2003. Hair snagged at two stations in Fundy National Park is confirmed by DNA as cougar: two animals. One carries a genetic signature from South or Central America, which points to an escaped or released captive. The other is North American, and where it came from has never been established.
- 2018. The United States rules the eastern cougar extinct.
People say
- The New Brunswick Museum has received “hundreds, if not thousands” of cougar reports it has been unable to confirm.
- Its curator has said some of them “do seem quite credible”.
- The host of this series says he has seen one twice. The second time was in June 2025.
Somebody should go and look.
Ryan, in brief
“I was twelve the first time. My mother and I were at the window when she said it: ‘A cougar.’ Forty-one years later, leaving Mount Carleton, I saw it again, three metres from my truck.”
Ryan Groom, host and producer
Read my storyFrom your sightings
-
No reports published yet
Approved reports will appear here. Yours could be the first.
For broadcasters and funders
- Format
- Unscripted documentary series
- Status
- Under development
- Setting
- New Brunswick, Canada
Episode count and running time to be set with a commissioning partner.
In development with the support of Trekkit Studios and the Government of New Brunswick.
Pitch deck available on request.
Request the deck