Eastern puma (Puma concolor couguar)
Kingdom: Animalia Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae
Listing Status:
General Information
The cougar's Latin name gives a clue to its appearance; “concolor” means with one color, and adult cougars' fur is a uniform red-brown or gray-brown. Cougars have long, slender bodies with very long tails and broad, round heads with erect, rounded ears. Adult cats average from 6 feet (females) to 8 feet (males) long, including their tail. Males, at around 140 pounds, are larger than females at about 105 pounds. Cougars can swim, climb trees, and leap horizontally and vertically equally well. Eastern cougars' primary prey was white-tailed deer, but they also hunted eastern elk (now extinct) and porcupines and other smaller mammals. The eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) once roamed the eastern United States from Maine to South Carolina and west from Michigan to Tennessee. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has for years presumed the eastern couger was extinct, having no verifiable evidence, such as DNA, to the contrary. Although many people have seen cougars in the East, and some have taken photographs, the animals sighted may not be the subspecies known as the eastern cougar.
- For more information: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ECougar/
» Federal Register Documents
| Date | Citation Page | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 01/29/2007 | 72 FR 4018 4019 | Initiation of a 5-Year Review of Ten Listed Northeastern Species |
| 06/04/1973 | 38 FR 14678 | Amendments to List of Endangered Fish and Wildlife; 37 FR 14678 |
» Recovery
Recovery Plan Information Search| Date | Title | Plan Action Status | Plan Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08/02/1982 | Eastern Cougar | View Implementation Progress | Final |
| Date | Citation Page | Title | Document Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01/29/2007 | 72 FR 4018 4019 | Initiation of a 5-Year Review of Ten Listed Northeastern Species |
» Critical Habitat
No critical habitat rules have been published for the Eastern puma.
» Conservation Plans
No conservation plans have been created for Eastern puma
» Petitions
No petition findings have been published for the Eastern puma.
» Life History
No Life History information has been entered into this system for this species.
» Other Resources
NatureServe Explorer Species Reports -- NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.
ITIS Reports -- ITIS (the Integrated Taxonomic Information System) is a source for authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.
