Searching for Elusive Eastern Cougar

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to look at
whether the eastern cougar exists. The agency will be
looking in 21 states from Maine to Michigan, and down
to Tennessee. As Linda Stephan reports, the review
could end with a recommendation to remove its
endangered status:

Transcript

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to look at
whether the eastern cougar exists. The agency will be
looking in 21 states from Maine to Michigan, and down
to Tennessee. As Linda Stephan reports, the review
could end with a recommendation to remove its
endangered status:


Officials have long presumed that the Eastern cougar
is extinct, and they say it’s not probable they’ll
find evidence of the large, evasive cat east of the
Mississippi in this review.


Mike DeCapita says it’s more likely officials will
find there never was an Eastern cougar that’s any
different from the cats found in Western states. He’s
a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service:


“The next question then after that would be, does the
cougar subspecies, the single subspecies in North
America warrant listing? And my speculation would be
that it doesn’t.”


The official assumption is that there are no cougars
of any type breeding in these states, and that’s been
controversial.


Several citizen groups say there’s evidence to suggest
some are living in the wild east of the Mississippi,
and possibly breeding.


For the Environment Report, I’m Linda Stephan.

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