DaytonDailyNews.com

TIPP CITY — Memories of running his coon dogs through Miami Valley fields and forest fill George Bell with longing.

A lifelong hunter and close observer of the outdoors, Bell, 74, can't get out as much because of health problems.

But when it comes to wildlife, he speaks with uncommon authority. His experience dates to the 1940s, before deer returned to Ohio. He worked as a farmhand and hunted every chance he got.

Confirmation by authorities in December that a bobcat is roaming Germantown MetroPark didn't surprise Bell. He's among those who have said for many years that they've seen bobcats in places they aren't supposed to exist.

What's more, Bell believes, as do others, that another great cat of Ohio history is hiding out in the woods and perhaps never left the state: the eastern cougar, or mountain lion, a beast of more than 100 pounds that can easily take down deer or other large mammals.

Bell said he knows hunters who have seen cougars in Miami County.

William Reichling, a retired school teacher who lives in Delhi Twp. near Cincinnati, started a network of animal trackers dedicated to proving at least some cougar roam the Buckeye state. Reichling said his sighting of one in 1988, in a ravine near the Ohio River, inspired his quest.

Cougars, he said, are "smart and nocturnal" and likely travel secluded sections of the Ohio River Valley out of sight of people. He even thinks one could be in Montgomery County and plans a trip this year in an attempt to track it. He won't say exactly where he thinks it is.