The story below is from our July/August 2018 issue. For more like it subscribe today, log in to read our digital edition or download our FREE iOS app. Thank you!
The eastern cougar has been removed from the nation’s list of threatened species because, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the big cat went extinct some 70 years ago. The agency reviewed more than 200 studies dating back to 1900 and said no evidence has emerged that cougars still live in the eastern wilds. Some scientists, however, maintain the eastern cougar is not a separate subspecies, and hence the agency “needs to develop a federal recovery plan for the entire historic range of the North American cougar including the eastern U.S.,” said Christopher Spatz, president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation in 2016. fws.gov/news