Posted on 03/02/2011 6:40:18 PM PST by americanophile
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The "ghost cat" is just that.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday declared the eastern cougar to be extinct, confirming a widely held belief among wildlife biologists that native populations of the big cat were wiped out by man a century ago.
After a lengthy review, federal officials concluded there are no breeding populations of cougars — also known as pumas, panthers, mountain lions and catamounts — in the eastern United States. Researchers believe the eastern cougar subspecies has probably been extinct since the 1930s.
Wednesday's declaration paves the way for the eastern cougar to be removed from the endangered species list, where it was placed in 1973. The agency's decision to declare the eastern cougar extinct does not affect the status of the Florida panther, another endangered wildcat.
Some hunters and outdoors enthusiasts have long insisted there's a small breeding population of eastern cougars, saying the secretive cats have simply eluded detection — hence the "ghost cat" moniker. The wildlife service said Wednesday it confirmed 108 sightings between 1900 and 2010, but that these animals either escaped or were released from captivity, or migrated from western states to the Midwest.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service fully believes that some people have seen cougars, and that was an important part of the review that we did," said Mark McCollough, an endangered species biologist who led the agency's eastern cougar study. "We went on to evaluate where these animals would be coming from."
A breeding population of eastern cougars would almost certainly have left evidence of its existence, he said. Cats would have been hit by cars or caught in traps, left tracks in the snow or turned up on any of the hundreds of thousands of trail cameras that dot Eastern forests.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Doubt it. Big cats can't stand the smell of patchouli.
Does this basically say that the only difference between an Eastern Cougar and any other kind of cougar is strictly one of location? What the heck kind of definition of "extinct" does the Fish and Wildlife Service have in their dictionary?
True.
That pic is getting on my nerves.
MEOW! I can haz nutmeg?
Probably whatever gets in the way.
All none of them?
...if God wants there to be terrorists, He’ll make them...
So why do we still see them in Georgia?
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Eventually Europeans disposed of the lions found in even the most remote areas.
By the time the Swedes obtained rights to mine the Carpathians, half the wolves in Europe were confined to those mountains. Today there's a residual population, but NO ONE WANTS THEM BACK.
Let's go back to 12,500 years ago in Anatolia ~ in that area where those hunter gatherers did their funeral celebrations THERE WERE NO LARGE TIGERS ~ or lions ~ or wolves ~ else they'd carved statues of them.
No doubt there were the occasional stray large carnivore, but certainly no Sabre Toothed tigers of whatever species. Early Americans, similar to the people recently found in Central Alaska from 11,500 years ago, are credited with ELIMINATING the saber toothed tigers and dire wolves, and with them, the mastadons, etc.
Stone age human beings were quite capable of getting rid of entire species of large dangerous animals and did so!
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I agree.
I, personally, don't know any but did you here the one about the Minister, the Priest and the Rabbi that walked into a bar and the bartender said, "what is this, some kind of joke"?
There are at least two in Bay County, FL, just south of the new airport. They’ve been seen, and heard, several times.
3rd paragraph
Wednesday’s declaration paves the way for the eastern cougar to be removed from the endangered species list, where it was placed in 1973. The agency’s decision to declare the eastern cougar extinct does not affect the status of the Florida panther, another endangered wildcat.
Hahah...as it happens I have a bum tooth as well.
You got that right.
These are the same people who classify Coho salmon from different rivers as different species.
Although, I suspect I might be a different species from Californians.
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