Eastern Cougars Declared Extinct
After 38 years as "endangered", the U.S. Fish and Wildlife department finally pulled the plug on the Eastern cougar.
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It has been about 80 years since the regionally classified “Eastern” cougar has had a confirmed sighting in the U.S. For the last 38 years the subspecies has been on the Endangered Species List, and today, March 2, 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife department officially declared the giant cat extinct.
The Northeast Region Chief of Endangered Species was quick to acknowledge that many cougar sightings in the Eastern U.S. have been reported, but that those sightings were never confirmed and were most likely someone’s lost household pet or a traveling “Western” mountain lion.
Source: News.mongabay.com
Note: May 20 is Endangered Species Day and in anticipation you can brush up on your facts by taking this quiz about endangered species.