Eastern Cougar Extinct: Mountain Lion Declared Gone From East U.S.

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

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.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/eastern-cougar-extinct-mo_n_830181.html

[tabasco]

1. Man will pay for the destruction of the environment

All of our technology will not save us.

[BOHICA12]

9. Sure it will .... it just won't save all of us. nt

[Capitalocracy]

13. Just the ones that matter.

And, you know, the ones who know how to run the technology.

[bitchkitty]

27. Technology is the only thing that will save us at this point.

But only if it's not profit-driven.

[humus]

28. foster its renewal

To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

- Wendell Berry

It is, in every way, in the best interest of urban consumers to be
surrounded by productive land, well farmed and well maintained by
thriving farm families in thriving farm communities.
Wendell Berry

What we have before us, if we want our communities to survive, is the
building of an adversary economy, a system of local or community
economies within, and to protect against, the would-be global economy.
Wendell Berry

[woo me with science]

36. However, we have a new "Eastern coyote."

Just heard an NPR feature about them this morning.

[wtbymark]

2. Vermont Catamounts!

there are still sightings

[Tesha]

7. But mostly at UVM football games. :-(. (NT)

[djg21]

26. UVM football has been extinct since the 70s too.

nt

[bluedigger]

12. I'm convinced I saw one about 10 years ago.

I was crossing on Rt 2 coming into St. Johnsbury and one crossed the road as I was coming up one of those big hills. It was silhouetted on the crest and I could see by the way it moved that it was a cat, not a dog. A very big one. It was gone into the woods by the time I got to where it crossed.

[Newest Reality]

3. It's never wise to fool with Mother Nature!

That's a truism that will soon become extremely clear ... in hindsight.

The current, "normal" lifestyle of Western culture, thick in its self-congratulating Simulations and marinated in celebrations of triumph over nature, is as out of balance as a rowboat with a pallet of lead on its bow.

Our massive tribe of supermarket hunter-gatherers and keyboard warriors tend to have little sense of just how much insult our current order of existing inflicts on our home world. Why, this kind of life seems to be the way it always was and will be.

I'm advocating a primitive lifestyle, nor is that at all a practical approach due to the sheer numbers of us here. We are faced with a massive degree of change, one way or another. Either we continue as usual, potentially sealing our fate, or we begin to wake-up and consider, individually and collectively, the nature and structure of how the changes will go.

Now, add to this problem the battalions of assclowns headbanging in the mosh pits of the mass media and the dedicated corporate servants who hold political office, and you can see how what is so crucial to our continuity by contrast. The Status Quo is throwing a National Temper Tantrum in order to preserve itself while we face the most trying and desperate epoch that may very well be unprecedented in its scope and severity.

[tex-wyo-dem]

4. Bit by bit our natural world disappears due to distruction by humans...

We will dearly pay for it.

[Solly Mack]

5. :(

[blackspade]

6. Truly sad.

[hootinholler]

8. I felt fortunate to see a lynx in the wild.

In Md, less than an hours drive from DC.

-Hoot

[happyslug]

10. Why is this being done??? In every Eastern State a Cougar would be a protected animal

The General Rule in the East (And I suspect the West, but I always have suspensions of the the South) is that any game is protected UNLESS one of the following four conditions are met:

1. An open season exists for that animal. No Eastern State has an open season for Cougars so NOT a problem

2. It is viewed as a non-native species, Cougars are native to the US so NOT a problem

3. A pest or other "Varmint", that means animals known to cause damage to Crop or forests, no close season exist for such animals BUT must be one of the listed varmints, if not a varmint a protected game animal cover by #1 above.

4. The animal is actually in the process of doing damage to your property. In Pennsylvania (My home state) restricted to Farmers with more then 50 acres, but there are court cases permitting such taking of game if doing damage on smaller pieces of property (The cases are old, and ignored by the Game Commission but on the books). Cougars are NOT know to go after cattle or other farm animals so this rule does NOT come into play.

Given the above, the Federal Rule was meaningless, i.e. the protection given the the endangered Species act were equal to or less then the above. Thus why did the Federal Government dis-list it? I have my suspicions and I think it had to do with Coal mining and Natural Gas fracturing.

Remember if you are operating in an area of an endangered species, you must made reasonable accommodations for such species. Table top removal could be viewed as a harm to Cougars for it would provide less cover for Cougars. The increase drilling for natural gas may be affected, for the more roads the harder for Cougars to isolate themselves from man (Notice I ignore hunting, most Eastern Hunters, when they think of Cougars would like them returned and do not view them as competitors for White Tail deer the "top game" in most of the Eastern US).

Just pointing out something else is involved, maybe justification to remove other animals from the list for the same reason, when you have even more evidence of the other specie existence. This is NOT done for the ease of bureaucracy, the local Game Commissions were perfectly find with the Cougar on the Endangered Species list. Something else is up with this removal and maybe only time will tell.

[Lost Jaguar]

18. Ditto in Maine

Multiple sightings here. Admittedly, many can be dismissed, but many, I feel, are legitimate. Some biologists speculate that they wander over from Quebec. Out west, one can assume that where there are deer, there are likely cougar. So, likewise here in the deep north woods. "Ghost cat" indeed. Folks who keep cats in their home can testify how easily, even in an apartment, they can disappear.

The presence of cougars in Maine has been officially denied for years. I suspect that the big paper companies don't want the restrictions on their operations that would ensue if the cougar's presence here was officially recognized.

They are one of the most dispersed mammals in the Americas; at one time acknowledged from Northern Canada to Southern Argentina, from Brazil to California. They survive because they live singly, unless rearing young, and can be virtually invisible when necessary.

Most sightings, wherever they occur, are of adolescents, recently kicked out by Mom, wandering in search of their own hunting ground.

May they always haunt our wilderness. They are one of those species who serve as a measure of how much undeveloped land we have left.

[happyslug]

20. Cougars spotted outside the American West since 1990

http://www.cougarnet.org/totalus.html

http://easterncougarnet.org/bigpicture.html

Official US Fish and Wildlife Service web page on the Cougar:
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ECougar/

[Alameda]

21. Great analysis....and probably true.

[unc70]

32. Have noticed several interesting implications flowing from this decision

Since I had submitted details of my own sighting of a panther/cougar, I was quite interested in this and have now read the full report(!), looked into the latest DNA research, looked at a bunch of confirmed sightings with DNA, and reports of incredible journeys by GPS-tagged western pumas and Florida panthers. Here are some things I found important, but not sure of their implications.

The entire Q&A about the designation is important because that ends all Federal jurisdiction and rules involving cougars except those regarding Florida panthers, any state protections that flowed just from it being a protected species without further enumeration, and leaves states with full jurisdiction to allow introduction of cougar species into the "eastern" range, to allow hunting of cougars, and to allow private ownership including on private hunting preserves.

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ecougar/QA.html

The scientific evidence from DNA regarding the mapping of the subspecies is a point of contention among the experts, but if in the future the federal legal position were that all the cougars and the Florida panther are a single species, cougars would be redefined as a "native species" in eastern states with implications that are unclear.

Some of the news reports concerning tracking of radio-tagged cougars raises serious questions regarding the validity of the whole concept of breeding populations, the distances they range, their adaptability, and a lot of other things stipulated as facts about cougars and their behavior. For example, one male cougar tagged in Colorado went over to Kansas, then back to New Mexico, walking 1000+ miles through five states last spring, and only known about because of his GPS collar. A female went about 600 miles. A Florida panther was killed in the NW corner of GA, initially thought a released western cougar until later DNA determined he was 500+ miles from his expected range.

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/breakingnews.html

Was the eastern cougar a distinct subspecies ever? Even if so, what of the overlapping ranges with other cougars? Don't know the answer, nor which determination would give the best outcome for the cougars, deer, other animals, and people.

[unc70]

35. Only "Eastern Cougar" was native to PA and "protected", not others

By definition, the western cougar/puma/mountain lion was not native to the eastern states, and more importantly the eastern cougar by definition was not native to any of the states out west where mountain lions were hunted then and now as big game or as varmits (e.g. Texas). Florida panthers were native only to Florida.

The western states were thus exempt from the ESA regarding them non-endangered western cougars, the Florida panther was protected, and the eastern states could delay most ESA requirements related to eastern cougars awaiting proof that they were still around. Until proven otherwise beyond any doubt, any cougars in the east were considered non-native and not protected. Any western cougars in the east are by definition non-native and not protected by the ESA. Now declare the eastern cougar extinct before more-complete DNA research might determine all the NA cougars are a single species, native to all states, and redefines the issues.

A little catch-22 and all the special interests are happy.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. I hope someone took DNA samples

--d!

[Xithras]

16. Genetically, North American Cougar's are a single subspecies.

Except, of course, for the Florida Panther, whose classification is still argued a bit.

There are plenty of mountain lions (cougars? panthers? bah, those are LIONS) out here on the west coast. We could load them on some trucks, release them back east, and re-found those populations if we had the political will to do so.

[happyslug]

24. Not that easy to do

First Cougars (like its cousin the Cheetah) learn to hunt from their mother, unlike the other branch of the big cars (Lions, Tigers and Leopards) that hunt instinctively (As to domestic Cats). Thus moving a Puma from the much drier West (With its conifers) to the much wetter East (and its hardwoods) means you are taking a cat that learn to hunt in one terrain into an almost completely different terrain (And the main game also changes, White tail is the main deer east of the Cougar's Western Territories, Mule tail is the most common in the Cougar's territory. White tail and Mule Tail deer are about the same size, but have different ways of handling predators, mostly do to the difference in the terrain and vegetation). In fact the slow move Eastward seems to reflect the Puma's ability to adjust to new hunting terrain and vegetation but such a change in tactics can take decades to work out given the nature of how puma learn to hunt.

Second is the English Common Law rule that if you bring in a specie, any damage to anyone caused by that introduction you must pay for BUT if the specie arrives on its own, no one is liable. This is especially true of the State, the State do NOT want to assume the cost of paying for any damage Pumas may do, if the state re-introduced them (And no one else is willing to assume the risk) but are more then willing to leave the puma return on its own (i.e. the state is NOT liable in such cases, even if the State BANS any harm to the Puma).

More on Cougars:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar#Hunting_and_diet

[Charleston Chew]

14. Earthlings

EARTHLINGS is a powerful and informative documentary about society’s treatment of animals, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix with soundtrack by Moby. This multi-award winning film by Nation Earth is a must-see for anyone who cares about animals or wishes to make the world a better place.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x546854

[eggplant]

15. I don't believe it.

There have been too many sightings in our neck of the woods.

[Esurientes]

43. I don't believe it, either.

I'm positive my brother and I saw one at the northern end of Shenandoah National Park late one night in the early 80's.

[burrowowl]

17. RIP Eastern Cougar

May there be a parallel universe where Man is not so destructive.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. ...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

22. We have them out here in CA --

and it thrills me to think they are out there and that I could run into one at any time I am out hiking. Knowing there is somthing out there that is truly wild and could kick my ass in a heartbeat is humbling, and reminds me I may have opposable thumbs but that there is stuff on this planet that is far more cool than out semi-sucky species.

I feel truly sad for the east coast that they have lost this magnificent creature.

[Taverner]

23. Why not move a couple California Cougars across the divide?

We have too many over here :)

[happyslug]

25. As I said above, easier to talk about then to do.

First Cougars (like its cousin the Cheetah) learn to hunt from their mother, unlike the other branch of the big cars (Lions, Tigers and Leopards) that hunt instinctively (As to domestic Cats). Thus moving a Puma from the much drier West (With its conifers) to the much wetter East (and its hardwoods) means you are taking a cat that learn to hunt in one terrain into an almost completely different terrain (And the main game also changes, White tail is the main deer east of the Cougar's Western Territories, Mule tail is the most common in the Cougar's territory. White tail and Mule Tail deer are about the same size, but have different ways of handling predators, mostly do to the difference in the terrain and vegetation). In fact the slow move Eastward seems to reflect the Puma's ability to adjust to new hunting terrain and vegetation but such a change in tactics can take decades to work out given the nature of how puma learn to hunt.

Second is the English Common Law rule that if you bring in a specie, any damage to anyone caused by that introduction you must pay for BUT if the specie arrives on its own, no one is liable. This is especially true of the State, the State do NOT want to assume the cost of paying for any damage Pumas may do, if the state re-introduced them (And no one else is willing to assume the risk) but are more then willing to leave the puma return on its own (i.e. the state is NOT liable in such cases, even if the State BANS any harm to the Puma).

More on Cougars:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar#Hunting_and_diet

[unc70]

34. Individual cougars go from SD to IL, IN or CO to KS to NM

I posted some links up-thread. We knew that some cougars traveled long distances from where they were tagged to where they were found, usually after being shot or run over. With the GPS radio collars linked to satellites, researchers now seem surprised that cougar a tagged in CO and now in NM, had been to KS, OK, TX -- without problems, without detection, without starving.

Others have gone from SD to IN all in the same spring. Mostly these are young males, but some females also making really long trips.

From the early descriptions of the cougars and the wide range of "eastern" skulls, etc. and with the overlapping ranges, I suspect that the various subspecies coexisted with each other, though their relative numbers varied by locality and over time.

I think it unlikely that an eastern-only cougar population survived intact over the past 150 years. The small Florida panther population was contaminated by South American cougars who escaped from captivity, their hybrid offspring no longer CPs. Also, six female cougars were brought from TX because there were so few females in FL, but now some of the characteristics that define CPs are disappearing without all the inbreeding.

I grew up in eastern NC where the remoteness of the pocosins and swamps were the refuge for deer, wild turkey, and bears (I personally could confirm). There were periodic reports of "panthers" all during the last century, but most met the current requirements for confirmation.

But they were swamp gas, or weather balloons.

[happyslug]

37. Last year, a Cougar was reported by a Pa Game Commission expert

The one who is called in to show that what someone saw was NOT a Cougar. About ten years ago a Cougar was reported at Coopers-dale homes of Johnstown (Cooperate Homes is a Public Housing Project of the City of Johnstown right at the end of the Conemaugh River Gap, the deepest river gap in the East, which brings Coopers-dale homes right next to Allegheny Mountain which is nothing by trees and hillsides for miles).

Thus reliable Cougar sightings have been seem but it is easy to make an mistake, for example I once saw a cat sitting in a ball field by the local bike trail as it enters the little Conemaugh river Gap. At first glance I thought it was bigger then a normal cat, assuming it was a bobcat or a Lynx. As I went closer, it moved and once it moved you could tell it was just a regular house cat. Mistakes like that happens.

On the other hand, we have had reports of Eastern Cougars for decades. Most of the Appalachian mountains were clear cut about 1900 so where a cougar could live was reduced drastically just before the ban on Hunting any "game" animal without a license became effective. Cougars take decades to increase to a level where they are over populated, and thus no such overpopulation has occurred in the East. Cougars can start to have kittens at age 2, but most kittens die before their are one year old. Many other die as they separate from their mother at about age 2. Thus replacement levels tend to be slow, taking decades to recover. In fact hunting seems to increase the number of cougars (basically, cougars are territorial, one cougar to a territory, male and female territories overlap but not two males or two females). Hunting knocks of Cougars, thus opening up their territories to other cougars. Constant killing of Cougars keep the territory open so you end up with more cougar per square mile when cougars are hunter, then in areas where Cougars are NOT hunted and thus establish territories and drive "excess" cougars away.

Just a comment that non-hunted cougars are less tolerate of other Cougars then Cougars in areas where it is legal to hunt Cougars. In the east you have no hunting of Cougars, and thus incentives for Cougars to have large ranges.

The fact that a Cougar only lives about 20 years and given the two year cycle most Cougar females goes through when they have kittens, that leaves 10 cougars per female as the maximum a female can produce. Given 1/2 are going to be male, that female cougar produced only five new female in her life time. If you accept that one of those female will replace their mother, every ten years you will see an increase of only 300% (Four females instead of one female). That sounds like a lot, but given the need to learn to hunt in new territories, not enough for a rapid explosion in population (Deer also live about ten years and produce ten offspring, half of them males, but Deer are NOT hunting its food, it is grazing, graze is not only more common then meat, it is also safer for most animals to obtain, thus less deaths and injuries when obtaining graze then meat).

Wolves, are different then Cats, in that Wolves, like dogs, are omnivores i.e. can live off plant AND animal food. Cats MUST have meat, thus Cats MUST hunt. Wolves only have to hunt if no other food is available, thus can decline hunts at times when Cougars MUST hunt. This gives wolves a little better ability to survive and reproduce (That Wolves are pack animals are another factor in their favor). Bears and Coyotes are also omnivores, and thus can survive and opt out of hunting if the risks are to high. Cougars do NOT have that option. Thus reproduction tends to be much slower among the Cats then Wolves, Coyotes and even bears.

Another factor is since 1900 and the last true clean cut in the Eastern US, the trees have been left to grow back. By the 1930s enough had grown back to make the eastern us a upland game bird paradise. By the 1950s that had ended and you had second growth trees with plenty of food for White Tail Deer, and thus you had a white tail deer paradise. By the 1980s that white tail deer paradise was dieing out, being replaced by mature woods and Turkeys (Pennsylvania hunters have complained of the drop in White Tail Deer since the 1970s when Deer population peaked and started to drop in rural Pennsylvania, while booming in urban and suburban Pennsylvania). This all reflects the clean cutting of the Woods about 1900s and the slow regrowth of the forests since that time (Most Pennsylvania Woods are in or are entering the Mature forest stage, a bad stage for deer).

Now, if we assume minimal number of Cougars in 1900, the numbers would have increased to about 1970, then start to drop as the forest gets to mature for deer. The Scary part is Cougars may have held their own since 1970, reducing the number of deer in Rural Pennsylvania leading to the drop in deer in Rural Pennsylvania (A find the State Game Commission does not want to find, for the Game Commission is under attack now for the drop in deer in Rural Pennsylvania).

Just pointing out some facts that can be involved in under-counting and non-counting Cougars in the American East. In many ways, the Rural East was not cougar territory till about WWII (As late as the 1970s you could still see the abandon homes of rural Pennsylvania workers who had to abandon those homes in the 1930 to look for work elsewhere. These were subsistence farms i.e. farms worked to feed the family, while the men (and women) went to larger farms to work (or other rural employment centers, Pennsylvania had a huge rural population tied in with industry located in rural Pennsylvania).

Thus it is possible for Cougars to exists in the Eastern US, but the numbers were low in 1900 and could not really recover till the 1950s (When second growth forest became the norm in Pennsylvania). By the 1980s when Mature Forest became the norm, it became harder for Cougars to find their meals AND they had to change tactics do to the change in the forest (Not easy, when you learn to hunt from your mother). Adjustments take time, and with the growth of the forest more adjustments had to be made then was normal.

My point is the clean cutting of the forest, the spread of second growth forests and then the maturating of those forests, lead to differed patterns of what walked those woods. Each required different hunting techniques that had to be learn on the job as oppose to from each cougar's mothers (Do to the change in forests over the last 100 years). This all kept the lions numbers down, but also permitted them to survive. Only time and the acceptance that such a clean cutting is NOT good for the state as a whole will permit Cougars to make the required adjustments and even that will take time.

[DemoTex]

41. When the Robber Barons clear cut the the lower Appalachians in NC early last century ..

They also hired bounty hunters to go in and kill any and all wild animals. So, the robber barons cleared the timber and killed the animals. For a few years, it was an economic boom for places like Transylvania County in North Carolina. Then the timber was gone and so was the livelihood of many a mountaineer.

As soldiers returned from WW-1, the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution (Prohibition) became the law of the land. The South eased into the depression, and another cash industry sprang up in them 'thar hills: moonshine whiskey. I once lived on a backwoods road in Transylvania County named "White Whiskey Way," and there were the carcasses of old liquor stills along many of the creeks in that area.

Now, the second growth forests are maturing (hurting the pot growers on federal NF lands). The animals are returning (including the panther and cougar). The illegal whiskey business is all but dead (there are a few artist out there making fine stuff, I am told). But, as Rosanne Roseannadanna said: "It's always something!" Now the hills are alive with meth labs.

But I remain committed to the mountains: those of Appalachia, the Rockies, my beloved Cascades and Newberry Volcano crater buttes, and all the others I can possibly visit, hike, climb, and photograph. And I love seeing the animals coming back. It means extra precautions on my part (since I live in the wilderness about half the year), but that's OK.


South Sister and Broken Top (Cascade Range) with Lowello Butte (Newberry Volcano north flank) between them (Deschutes NF, Oregon)

[unc70]

42. Much of what we "know" about cougars seems wrong or incomplete

Most of what we know about cougars is based on observing a few groups with established ranges, mostly in the West. But there is a lot more going on with cougars that we are now learning using GPS tagging, trail cameras, etc.

Cougars can adapt to hunting in different environments without their mothers teaching them. Multiple examples show individual cougars moving 1000+ miles through changing ecosystems and still feeding themselves quite well. Yes, mother cougars help teach their young to hunt, but not just deer but all kinds of things large and small. There are also cases where cougars raised in captivity had escaped and survived by hunting, even some that had been de-clawed.

Cougars are traveling great distances without being detected except for satellite tracking.

Cougars are documented as more social than generally assumed. For example, the eight in Oregon caught on trail cameras (see DemoTex below) or the radio-tagged mother cougar who adopted three cubs in addition to the three she already had.

I suspect that cougars of some type have been in the swamps of the eastern Carolinas all along, roughly from Savannah to Norfolk.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. So, every Asian woman over 40 will be ugly from now on?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[BOG PERSON]

30. see you in hell, eastern cougar!!!

HU-MANS! HU-MANS! HU-MANS! HU-MANS!

[BOG PERSON]

31. HUMANS RULE

NON-HUMANS DROOL

[Lucinda]

33. Eastern Cougar Is Declared Extinct, With an Asterisk -NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/science/earth/03cougar.html?_r=1">"There’s one wrinkle, though: it may not be extinct, exactly."

We are actually pretty sure we saw a cougar recently in Eastern TN. I live adjacent to the GSMNP. I didn't ask for it's birth certificate though.

[zonkers]

38. We ought to repopulate a like species.

[sofa king]

39. In the 1940s, my father saw one in SW Virginia.

It dropped from a tree into the path in front of him while he was hiking at night with his boy scout flashlight. He said the puma looked as scared as any critter he's ever seen--and he was more scared than that. Both chose different directions to run.

[DemoTex]

40. I am aware of a cougar sighting near Caesar's Head mountain in SC recently

And I have seen a black panther in western Transylvania County, NC.

The cougar situation in the Oregon wilds (and Pacific NW) is a completely different story. They are becoming prolific there.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014261221_cougars18m.html