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The North American cougar lives in various places and habitats. [8] Several populations still exist and are thriving in the western United States, Southern Florida, and western Canada, but the North American cougar was once commonly found in eastern portions of the United States. It was believed to be extirpated there in the early 1900s.
The cougar (Puma concolor) (/ ˈ k uː ɡ ər /, KOO-gər), also known as the panther, mountain lion, catamount and puma, is a large 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.
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).
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. [10] 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. [11]
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 nasal opening for the North American species is square, unlike that of the European species, which is triangular. The foramen magnum is triangular in the North American beaver, and rounded in the European. The anal glands of the North American beaver are smaller and thick-walled with a small internal volume compared to that of the European ...
Like the jaguar, [4] the cougar holds historical cultural significance amongst many South American indigenous people. [15] People in the Andes regard the puma as being either a snatcher of souls, or as a helper of people. [4] The cougar's name was used for Incan regions and people. The Chankas, who were enemies of the Incas, had the cougar as ...
During most of the climatic shifts of the last 100,000 years, most plant migration in Eastern North America occurred along a more or less north-south axis. The climate optimum was significant because it made conditions favorable for the invasion and establishment of species from the center of the continent. [6]