HUFFINGTON
09.30.12
WILD KINGDOM
cies, and experts believe that the
variant once endemic to the Eastern U.S. — known generally as the
Eastern puma — was all but extinct by the 1930’s.
More recent DNA analysis has
suggested that some of that slicing
and dicing of regional populations
into subspecies was overwrought,
and that, at the very least, all
North American cougars, east to
west, are really the same species,
although this is not yet universally accepted. In March of last year,
a five-year review by the U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service recommended
removing the Eastern puma from
the federal Endangered Species
List because, in a nutshell, there
just aren’t any left.
Today, some estimates put the
remaining U.S. cougar population
as high as 30,000 cats, though in
truth, no scientifically sound population estimate has been established. What is generally accepted, however, is that virtually all
of them live and breed in a loose
constellation of regionally defined
populations out West, where there
is enough remaining wilderness to
sustain a species that can require
anywhere from 10 to 300 square
miles to roam.
By this reckoning, the Milford
Some estimates put the
remaining U.S. cougar
population as high as
30,000 cats, though in
truth, no scientifically sound
population estimate has
been established.
cat — a sturdy adolescent male
— seemed an impossibility, and
initial speculation was that the
animal had to be an escaped pet.
Examiners scanned the carcass for
evidence that the animal had been
collared or declawed or neutered
— or even allowed to go flabby in
some domesticated setting. Its fur
was combed under special lights
to expose carpet fibers or other
bits of manmade material, a telltale sign that it had been kept
indoors, or had perhaps seen the
inside of a vehicle. A forensic veterinary pathologist from Oregon
flew in to examine the animal and
conduct a necropsy. Its tissues
were examined, and its stomach
contents were analyzed to see if it
had been fed commercial pet food.
In each case, nothing.
Tissue samples were then sent