Now Extinct, Puma of The East America

Published by Taufiq Bashori
July 5, 2011, Category: Ecology

Eastern cougar (Puma concolor cougar) or puma that lives in the eastern United States has entered the list of animals that need to be protected as endangered animal since 1973. However, its presence in the list of endangered animals has long been questioned.

In order to find out the status of the animal’s certainty, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) conducted intensive research on information and data available. And in a report published March 2, 2011, the agency concluded that the eastern cougar has reach a state of extinction and need to be removed from the list of animals that need to be protected.

“We know that many people have seen cougars in various eastern wild,” said Martin Miller, Chief of the Endangered Species Service Northeast Region, as quoted by the ScienceDaily, Friday, March 4, 2011. “But we believe that puma which they saw was not the eastern subspecies of cougar. We did not get the information that support the existence of eastern cougar, “he said.

According to researchers, the pumas which can be seen in the wild now are another subspecies of puma, such as South American puma or cougar that migrated west America.

Image via Wikipedia

Having done an intensive research, Mark McCollough, chairman of the eastern cougar Service research team concluded, eastern cougar subspecies has already been extinct since the 1930s.

Research conducted by the Service is part of the implementation of the Endangered Species Act. The Service will submit a proposal to remove the eastern cougar from the list of animals that need to be protected because extinct animals have no right of any protection under the Endangered Species Act rules.

Service’s decision to announce the demise of the eastern puma is by no means related with the Florida panther , wild cat subspecies of other entries in the list of endangered species. Although the Florida panther population had grown up around the area of the southeastern United States, now the animal population remains at less than 5 percent.