The eastern puma is extinct because they were extirpated from the eastern United States by the late 1890s. In other words they were eradicated or completely destroyed through hunting and trapping in that part of the United States of America.
This wild cat species was extinct long before it was declared extinct. The last one was killed in Maine in 1938 according to the Centre for Biological Diversity.
Hunting pumas is still big business and still very popular especially with dogs. Some people, like me find it revolting but a lot of people have diametrically opposed views.
You probably know that there is a small population of pumas in Florida hanging on by the skin of their teeth living in a habitat crisscrossed by roads and increasingly urbanised. Their survival is precarious. Relatively speaking many are killed on the roads.
Some people think that the eastern puma is not extinct. They report sightings. That’s the unofficial situation but officially they were declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service on January 22, 2018. On that date the species was removed from the federal endangered species list. This distinct population of pumas once lived from Québec to South Carolina and from Manitoba to Illinois.
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