Eastern Cougar - Uncertainty of Survival

Uncertainty of Survival

A consensus exists among wildlife officials in 21 eastern states that the eastern cougar subspecies has been extirpated from eastern United States. The federal government of Canada has taken no position on the subspecies' existence, continued or otherwise, and terms the evidence "inconclusive."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed all available research and other information, and concluded in 2011 that the eastern cougar subspecies has been extinct since the 1930s, and recommended that it be removed from its list of endangered species. The agency used the 1946 taxonomy of S.P. Young and E.A. Goldman in defining the eastern cougar subspecies. While noting that some taxonomists in recent years have classified all North American cougars within a single subspecies, the agency's 2011 report said "a full taxonomic analysis is necessary to conclude that a revision to the Young and Goldman (1946) taxonomy is warranted."

The agency acknowledged the occasional presence of cougars in eastern North America, but believes these are of wanderers from western breeding ranges or escaped captives. Its review expressed skepticism that breeding populations exist north of Florida, noting, among other things, the lack of consistent road kill evidence comparable to known cougar ranges. However, the presence of cougars in the wild — whatever their taxonomy or origin — in eastern North America, continues to be controversial.

Various residents of eastern North America, especially in rural regions, have reported as many as 10,000 cougar sightings since the 1960s and many continue to believe the subspecies has survived.

Bruce Wright, a wildlife biologist and former student of Aldo Leopold popularized the idea that a breeding population of cougars persisted in northern New England and the Maritime provinces through a series of articles and books published between 1960 and 1973. Wright based his idea mostly on unconfirmed sightings, track photos and plaster casts, and photographs of pumas killed in New Brunswick in 1932 and in Maine in 1938.

Since the 1970s, privately run groups have formed in nearly every state to compile and investigate records of cougar sightings. Many of these groups are convinced that breeding populations of cougars exist throughout the region. Some believe that a conspiracy to hide information or secretly reintroduce cougars is actively underway by state and federal governments. Some endeavor to promote the recovery of cougars in eastern North America. Large numbers of cougar sightings have been reliably reported throughout the Midwest.

At least several dozen or more reported sightings have been confirmed by biologists, many of whom believe they are accounted for by escaped captives or individual members of the western subspecies who have wandered hundreds of miles from their established breeding ranges in the Dakotas or elsewhere in the west.

Eastern U.S. reported sightings, many of which reviewed in the recent federal report, in various locations, including Michigan (See Upper Peninsula), Wisconsin, Southern Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Connecticut, New York Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Vermont, Alabama Louisiana.