If you look at a map of Vermont the little hook you see jutting out into Lake Champlain is a remote area. Once there was no road to it. Catamount sightings there have been ongoing for 50 years there, there is a thriving population of Rattle Snakes, and Bigfoot sightings. I believe the Catamount, and snake stories.
They put a tracking device on a catamount in, IIRC Michigan. It ended up in Virginia. Evidently these creatures wander endlessly. Here, sightings are rare, but tracks, and scat much more common. There are plenty of people who believe they've seen one. I expect most sightings are the common bobcat.
Willie