Eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is considered by many puma biologists to be a subspecies of the North American cougar, while others believe recent genetic research suggests all North American cougars are a single subspecies. The eastern subspecies was deemed extinct by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) evaluation in 2011, while a parallel Canadian organization has taken no position on the question.
USF&WS officials believe that cougars found in eastern North America during recent years have genetic origins in South America (as escaped captives) or are from western North America (as wandering individuals). Others say these cats are surviving members of the eastern subspecies.
Read more about Eastern Cougar: History of Taxonomy, Uncertainty of Survival, Views From Canada, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Review, Possible Colonization of East By Western Cougars
Famous quotes containing the word eastern:
“Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)