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+----- Thread: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) (/topic-north-american-cougar-puma-concolor-couguar)
North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - BorneanTiger - 08-31-2020
The North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is the subspecies of cougars native to North America, and it is possible that cougars in northwest South America (northwest of the Andes) belong to this subspecies: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/32616/A_revised_Felidae_Taxonomy_CatNews.pdf?#page=33
As I mentioned earlier, the cougar can be found in the vicinity of major American urban areas, such as Los Angeles in California:
Where do mountain lions hunt in Los Angeles? https://www.theverge.com/2016/7/15/12187508/mountain-lions-cougars-hunting-developed-areas-california-ucla-study
Credit: Steve Winter / National Geographic
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Though the Eastern cougar (the type specimen for the subspecies, which had been present in northeastern North America), is classified as extinct or extirpated, within the eastern part of the U.S.A., the Florida panther (formerly Puma concolor coryi / floridana), still exists, thankfully:
Photo of an Eastern cougar by Lavonda Walton of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:
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Floridan cougar at Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples, credit: The National Geographic
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Floridan panthers fighting:
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - BorneanTiger - 09-25-2020
@Balam @Dark Jaguar In February, a 6-year-old girl was attacked by a Californian cougar reportedly weighing 160 pounds (72.57 lbs), but was saved by an adult that punched the big cat's ribs: https://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-attacked-mountain-lion-saved-adult-punched-cat/story?id=69027052
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 09-25-2020
(09-25-2020, 04:39 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: @Balam In February, a 6-year-old girl was attacked by a Californian cougar weighing 160 pounds (72.57 lbs), but was saved by an adult that punched the big cat's ribs: https://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-attacked-mountain-lion-saved-adult-punched-cat/story?id=69027052
Good find! A 70+ kg cougar from California is a large one.
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - TheNormalGuy - 09-25-2020
There are possible sightings every year and hair posts of eastern cougars in Quebec. Forillon National Park talk about them oftenly in their talks/forums of information at night. Tracks, hairs are found and at least one possible sighting a year.
My father saw one in 1975 running down a field near Rivière-du-Loup, Qc.
"Extinct" - More like not officially seen, but many possible sighting, hair and tracks. Weird.
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 09-25-2020
(09-25-2020, 05:02 PM)TheNormalGuy Wrote: There are possible sightings every year and hair posts of eastern cougars in Quebec. Forillon National Park talk about them oftenly in their talks/forums of information at night. Tracks, hairs are found and at least one possible sighting a year.There is a camera trap picture of a cougar in Quebec. There are a few of them roaming Quebec and here in Ontario as well.
My father saw one in 1975 running down a field near Rivière-du-Loup, Qc.
"Extinct" - More like not officially seen, but many possible sighting, hair and tracks. Weird.
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Pckts - 09-25-2020
(09-25-2020, 04:54 PM)Balam Wrote:(09-25-2020, 04:39 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: @Balam In February, a 6-year-old girl was attacked by a Californian cougar weighing 160 pounds (72.57 lbs), but was saved by an adult that punched the big cat's ribs: https://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-attacked-mountain-lion-saved-adult-punched-cat/story?id=69027052
Good find! A 70+ kg cougar from California is a large one.
Just an estimate, they haven't captured the Cougar yet.
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - BorneanTiger - 09-25-2020
Are black cougars possible?
The term "black panther" is usually applied to a melanistic leopard (Panthera pardus) in the Old World, and a melanistic jaguar (Panthera onca) in the New World, but the cougar's range in the Americas is more extensive than that of the jaguar, with the former covering temperate areas in the southern extreme of South America, and the northern extreme of North America. It is worth mentioning that pumas can have colour variations, including albinism, and even spots: http://messybeast.com/genetics/mutant-pumas.html
This photo depicts a cougar shot in 1959 by Miguel Ruiz Herrero in the province of Guanacaste along Costa Rica's north Pacific coast. Estimated to weigh 100–120 lbs (45.359–54.431 kg), its carcass is seen here alongside Ruiz's herdsman, but what happened to it afterwards is unknown: http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-truth-about-black-pumas-separating.html
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Painting of a black panther in North America confronting dogs, by William Rebsamen:
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RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 09-26-2020
(09-25-2020, 10:46 PM)BorneanTiger Wrote: Are black cougars possible?
The term "black panther" is usually applied to a melanistic leopard (Panthera pardus) in the Old World, and a melanistic jaguar (Panthera onca) in the New World, but the cougar's range in the Americas is more extensive than that of the jaguar, with the former covering temperate areas in the southern extreme of South America, and the northern extreme of North America. It is worth mentioning that pumas can have colour variations, including albinism, and even spots: http://messybeast.com/genetics/mutant-pumas.html
This photo depicts a cougar shot in 1959 by Miguel Ruiz Herrero in the province of Guanacaste along Costa Rica's north Pacific coast. Estimated to weigh 100–120 lbs (45.359–54.431 kg), its carcass is seen here alongside Ruiz's herdsman, but what happened to it afterwards is unknown: http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-truth-about-black-pumas-separating.html
Painting of a black panther in North America confronting dogs, by William Rebsamen:
I've mentioned this video before but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned how the cougar in the video has a black coating. I highly doubt is paint as the coating is perfectly even throughout.
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - TheNormalGuy - 09-27-2020
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 01-14-2021
Scars tell a tale of a warrior, Utah
*This image is copyright of its original author
By Kelli Pool
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 01-21-2021
Massive male was seen at Weir Canyon, California
*This image is copyright of its original author
By Irvine Ranch Conservacy
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - TheNormalGuy - 01-24-2021
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKYyWbsH7HP/?igshid=145iutd6m0kak
Drew Trush footage !
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 01-26-2021
Spotted near LA
These Californian mtn lions are looking very healthy and large, likely the result of hunting being banned in the state and plenty of available prey
*This image is copyright of its original author
By Claw LA
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 01-30-2021
New Mexico
*This image is copyright of its original author
By Kris Seymour
RE: North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) - Balam - 01-30-2021
@TheNormalGuy have you seen this?
Cougar appears on trail camera northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont.
*This image is copyright of its original author
There has been another cougar photographed just outside of Thunder Bay, Ont.
On Monday evening, an adult cougar showed up on trail camera owned by Adam Massaro. Massaro said he normally has a lot of lynx on his property, located five kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay in Kaministiquia, but he had never seen a cougar.
"I was walking down to check my trail cam [Wednesday night]," Massaro said, "and I noticed the cat tracks in the snow and they looked quite a bit bigger than a lynx. So I sent a picture of them to my fiance as a joke and said 'maybe there is a cougar around' and I checked the camera and yup, that's what it was."
Massaro said there is a good chance the cougar was looking for deer on his property, where he has a mineral block and some alfalfa out to feed the deer near the trail camera. There are also often quite a few snowshoe hare showing on his camera, Massaro added.
"It looked like the cat might have got a rabbit, but it was hard to be sure," he said. "It hung around for six minutes."
Massaro said the cougar was just under 300 metres from his house.
*This image is copyright of its original author
"It actually walked close to my house," he said. "It walked down the trail from my hunting stand area, then must have seen the house and took a 90 into the bush."
Massaro shared nearly a dozen of the trail camera photos of the cougar with CBC News.
The cat appears around 8:31 p.m. on Monday, and is still hanging around at 8:36 p.m. The cougar is large, healthy and in several shots seems to be yawning. There has been a flurry of cougar activity around Thunder Bay over the past few months. In November, two pictures of a cougar said to be from a trail camera near Lappe, a community northwest of Thunder Bay, made the rounds on social media, but they were unattributed.
Massaro said those pics from November were apparently taken not far from his home.
*This image is copyright of its original author
On Dec. 31, Chris Maley had a cougar appear on his trail camera located near his home off Highway 61, southwest of Thunder Bay.
The 15-second video was clear and showed a large, mature cougar. While Maley's cougar video and Massaro's trail cam pictures are rare confirmed examples, the presence of cougars in the northwest has been established.
*This image is copyright of its original author
On March 25, 2017, the carcass of a cougar was found frozen in a snowbank on Boreal Road, northwest of Thunder Bay. The animal was emaciated and had likely died due to starvation. That cougar had a large number of porcupine quills in its snout, mouth and throat. It was the first confirmed wild cougar carcass found in Ontario.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry seized the carcass and had the animal tested. The DNA results showed it was closely related to animals from the region of the Black Hills of Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. The ministry said at the time that the animal found dead was not part of a resident cougar population in northern Ontario.
Cougars are considered an endangered species in the province.
Source
This are amazing news because they confirm that the Eastern cougar has returned, or perhaps it never went fully extinct, and instead few individuals remained in these provinces hidden away in remote areas.