A copyright-free image of the cougar from Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language, 1911.

Do eastern pumas exist? Are they an endangered species? Should these “ghost cats” be removed from the endangered species list? Are the eastern subspecies actually different from the western subspecies?

These are a few of the questions that the United States federal government will answer by the end of the year, they promise. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced some time ago it is formally reviewing the status of the eastern mountain lion to determine if the felid should stay on the endangered species list.

For some reason, months after the survey was announced and almost two weeks after a press release was issued, the last few days have seen a flurry of interest in this “news.”

The review may be more far-reaching than it seems.

Media attention has touched only the surface of this story in the last few days. Of the hundred or so articles you may or may not have seen in your local newspapers, most are merely copies of a PRNewswire press release from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, distributed on March 1, 2007.

Interestingly, the articles this week and the press release are all based on a government announcement that quietly occurred back in the Federal Register on January 29, 2007.

The status survey is being coordinated by Mark McCollough, a federal biologist, based in Old Town, Maine. In the Pennsylvania press release, the only quote from McCollough was this one:

An important part of the Service’s review will be to compile the best available scientific evidence and objectively assess whether the eastern cougar is truly extinct. Mark McCollough, endangered species biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Northeast Region.

Guess what one quote from McCollough keeps showing up in others’ articles? Here it is from John McCoy’s article “Feds try to get line on cougars” published March 15, 2007, in the Gazette-Mail of Charleston, West Virginia:

An important part of the Service’s review will be to compile the best available scientific evidence and objectively assess whether the Eastern cougar is truly extinct.” Mark McCollough

What did the local officials who gather the West Virginia “eastern puma” material have to say to the press?

We had a couple of cougars turn up [in 1974], but a study of the parasites on them showed that they were Western cats that had been turned loose here. A lot of cougars are available as pets on the black market, and it’s not unusual for people to abandon them after they learn how difficult and dangerous they are to handle. Craig Stihler, endangered-species biologist, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources

If they had remained here, we would have had more definitive reports – road kills, pictures, tracks and sign. With all the hunters and hikers we have in the woods of this state, I doubt cougars could maintain enough individuals to support a population without being better observed. Paul Johansen, West Virginia Division of Natural Resources’s assistant wildlife chief

A repeat of McCollough’s words and those of a Maine wildlife official can be read in an article by John Richardson of the Portland Press Herald:

We’re willing to listen to the evidence and look at it objectively. – Mark McCollough, federal biologist, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The vast majority of these [sightings], for sure, are simply mistakes. I’m very skeptical that we could have any wild population here. – Scott Lindsay, regional biologist, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife.

Trimming out the local details and “what is a puma” background, here is the essence of McCollough’s paraphrased reactions and what he says will be doing with the Maine data:

The sightings in Cape Elizabeth and Monmouth [Maine] will be among the records reviewed by McCollough and others. Confirmed sightings such as those in Maine do not necessarily mean eastern cougars are residing here, he said. Such sightings are so rare that biologists say those individual cougars could have been captive animals, or pets, that escaped or were released. McCollough said there are an estimated 1,000 captive mountain lions in the eastern U.S., either kept with proper permits or illegally….McCollough said the agency is expected to issue its report later this year. Any recommendation to de-list the lion would lead to a separate review process. John Richardson, “Are they here? Cougar’s existence studied,” Portland Press Herald, March 13, 2007

What do you think the United States government, in the person of Mark McCollough, will discover from their review of the current status of the eastern cougar, the cat of many names, Puma concolor cougar?

Let’s step back from this and understand what is going on. McCollough’s review will be based on the information he is getting from state departments and state biologists. What is the tone of their opinion? The reporter from the The Portland Press Herald summarized it well.

It’s clear that state and federal biologists are doubtful that Maine or the other Eastern states have resident cougars. John Richardson, Portland Press Herald

Do you have an insight about this? You can have a say. As part of the process, the USFWS has requested that anyone wishing to submit information regarding the eastern cougar may do so by emailing your comments to EasternCougar@fws.gov

Leave your remarks, reactions, and comments here, as usual, and cc those remarks with data and impact to the USFWS.