To state and provincial wildlife department directors, furbearer program leaders, and nongame/endangered species program leaders:

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Region 5 completed a status review of the eastern cougar. Five-year reviews are required for all species listed under the Endangered Species Act, though they are not considered decisions or final agency actions. The review is the first of its kind completed since the eastern cougar recovery plan was completed in 1982.

We analyzed the best available information and concluded the eastern cougar subspecies no longer exists. We believe the subspecies has likely been extinct for almost 70 years. Many people have reported wild cougar sightings in the historical range of the eastern cougar; but evidence of these sightings suggests these animals are other subspecies, often of South American origin, and either escaped or were released from captivity, or are dispersing cougars from growing western populations. The Service will now prepare a proposal to remove the eastern cougar from the endangered species list.

The eastern cougar was placed on the endangered species list in 1973. Service biologists believed it was possible that the eastern cougar survived in a few remote areas of its historical range. Nine years later, the 1982 recovery plan acknowledged that no breeding populations had been substantiated since the 1920s.

During the past 3 years, Service biologists have reviewed all the available U.S. and Canadian literature and held discussions with cougar groups, people who have seen cougars in the wild, geneticists, State agency biologists, Canadian Wildlife Service biologists, and endangered species biologists in Regions 3 and 4. Region 5 biologists reviewed 573 comments received in response to a request for information. They also requested information from the 21 States within the historical range of the eastern cougar. No evidence supports the existence of an eastern cougar population.

After the 2007 call for comments for the 5-year review, the Service received messages from people who relayed anecdotes about having seen cougars in the historical range. The Service has concluded that the sightings are of animals other than cougars; cougars from other subspecies, often South American origin, that either escaped or were released from captivity; or cougars from western populations that have dispersed toward the East.

Cougar populations have increased in western States and dispersed as far as the Midwest. Cougars of wild origin have been confirmed from Minnesota and Wisconsin south to Louisiana. The historical range of eastern cougars extends from Canada south to Georgia and west to Missouri and Illinois.

Attached is a copy of the status review and a Question and Answer about the Service's eastern cougar review. You are free to distribute within your agencies and to the public. We encourage those who want to learn more about the eastern cougar, our review, and our decision to remove the eastern cougar from the endangered species list to visit our web page at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ECougar/

Sincerely, Mark McCollough, Ph.D. Endangered Species Specialist

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Maine Field Office
17 Godfrey Drive, Suite #2
Orono, ME 04473

(See attached files: eastern cougar_news release.doc, Cougar FAQs.pdf, Eastern cougar 5-yr review_final_March2011.pdf