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The cougar (Puma concolor) (/ ˈ k uː ɡ ər /, KOO-gər), sometimes called the mountain lion, catamount, puma, or panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most widespread in the world.
The cougar is also commonly known as mountain lion, puma, mountain cat, catamount, or panther. The sub-population in Florida is known as the Florida panther. Over 130 attacks have been documented in [ 1 ] North America in the past 100 years, with 28 attacks resulting in fatalities.
Puma (/ ˈ p j uː m ə / or / ˈ p uː m ə /) is a genus in the family Felidae whose only extant species is the cougar (also known as the puma, mountain lion, and panther, [2] among other names), and may also include several poorly known Old World fossil representatives (for example, Puma pardoides, or Owen's panther, a large, cougar-like cat of Eurasia's Pliocene).
Paradoxically, if humans carry out a cougar cull, “conflict is more likely since you disrupt the population structure that the mountain lions are maintaining on their own,” research suggests.
The eastern cougar or eastern puma (Puma concolor couguar) is a subspecies designation proposed in 1946 for cougar populations in eastern North America. [2] [3] The subspecies as described in 1946 was declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011. [4] However, the 1946 taxonomy is now in question. [5]
The Florida panther had for a long time been considered a unique cougar subspecies, with the scientific name Felis concolor coryi proposed by Outram Bangs in 1899. [11] A genetic study of cougar mitochondrial DNA showed that many of the purported cougar subspecies described in the 19th century are too similar to be recognized as distinct. [ 12 ]
A young mountain lion roaming the neighborhood of Sylmar resulted in the death of a large dog -- bringing residents to question whether the feline could target a human.
The North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is a cougar subspecies in North America. It is the biggest cat in North America (North American jaguars are fairly small), [4] [5] and the second largest cat in the New World. [6] It was once common in eastern North America and is still prevalent in the western half of the continent.