NR 602 Eastern Puma Assignment

NR 602 Eastern Puma Assignment

NR 602 Eastern Puma Assignment

NR602 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Endangered Species Act (ESA) Exercise  – Sample Response

1. Name of species: Eastern Puma (cougar), Eastern North America, Puma concolor couguar.
2. List Information: Endangered (entire population).  January 15, 1973, (38 Fed. Reg. 14678) a proposal to amend appendix D part 17 of title code 50, Code of Federal Regulations.  The Eastern Cougar was added so there would be minimal delay in minimizing the threats these mammals existence.  However, 60 Fed. Reg. 50485 (Jul. 1, 1975) shows July 1, 1975 as the first listing date for the Eastern Puma.  On January 29 2007, (72 Fed. Reg. 4018, 4019) the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced the initiation of a 5-year review of ten northeastern species, including the Eastern Puma.  This review is to determine the accuracy of each species on the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants as threatened or endangered.  A 5-year review is an assessment of the best scientific and commercial data available at the time of the review.
3. Critical Habitat: N/A – has not been designated for this species.
4. Status: From: http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=A046

Eastern Puma populations experienced a sharp decline in abundance over the past 300 years.  They once roamed from Maine to South Carolina and westward from Michigan to Tennessee.  A recovery plan was initiated in August of 1981 by the USFWS, but even at that point it was not clear that the Eastern Puma was still in existence in the Eastern United States.[1]

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Locations:  Today, the Eastern Puma, due to a lack of any scientific evidence otherwise, is considered to be extinct.  Once the most widely dispersed land mammal, only the western cougars still have a large enough population to maintain breeding stocks.[2]

Some scientists have set forth evidence that the Eastern Puma still exists and have recommended a coordinated investigation into the animal’s distribution.⁴

 

5. Controversy: Five year review conducted by USFWS in March of 2011 recommended delisting classification based upon extinction.[3]  There has been insufficient evidence to support that the wild Eastern Puma still exists.  Eyewitness sittings have been unreliable and any genetic evidence that has been provided has been of South American and captive origins.

The mystery behind the disappearance of the Eastern Puma has intrigued scientists and sparked a hunt to find concrete evidence of it’s continued existence. Credible reports of sightings, along with various scat, hair, blood and DNA samples ranging from New Brunswick to Nebraska have given scientists reasons to believe that the cougar continues to survive in exclusion in the mountain ranges of the eastern portion of North America.⁵ The unknown fate of the Eastern Puma appears at first to be a story out of folklore but is indeed an active scientific endeavor being undertaken by a variety of wildlife management organizations.

[1] http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plans/1982/820802.pdf

[2] http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ECougar/

[3] http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ecougar/pdf/Easterncougar5-yearreview-final-111610.pdf

⁴– James E. Cardoza and Susan A. Langlois. “The Eastern Cougar: A management failure?” Wildlife Society Bulletin, vol. 30, pp. 265-273. 2002.

⁵ Bob Butz. “Beast of Never, Cat of God: The Search for the Eastern Puma.” Lyons Press, 2005.