Talk:North American cougar

message: The word "cougar" is not a proper noun, yet it seems to be capitalized throughout this article. This is pointless capitalization of a common noun and is poor grammar. I'm changing all references to lower case.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.73.75.192 (talk) 13:55, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Needless capitalization of "cougar"

message: I got the ok from the sight that some of this text was from to use it on Wikipedia.--ÑøζζłεΜαń 19:12, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  picture 

message: When I was home on leave from Active Duty (U.S. Army Military Police) in the late winter of 1996 I was driving home (with car windows up) and a cougar crossed the road in front of me and walked through a side then back yard and disappeared in the treeline at the end of the yard. My passenger also saw the animal and we reported the incident the next day to a Hamilton County (Ohio) Park Ranger. I was sure that the Ranger would think that I was a cracked-pot but thought it was important to report this incident as I believed that someone may have released a pet cougar and it may be dangerous. I was going from Saylor Park (Cincinnati) to Delhi Township, the road I was driving on cuts through a heavily wooded river hill area called the Western Wildlife Corridor. Anyway, I described the animal and provided the Park Ranger with details of the sighting and to my surprise he did not think that I was a nut but rather took my report and then referred me to a Mr. Bill Riechling who I then contacted and he made a report of the sighting for a Cougar Society (can't remember the name). To my further surprise I was informed that there have been several sightings in this area of cougar and that they believe that it is not a single animal but rather a reminant population that never died out and is transient within the "Wildlife Corridor". I personally do not know what the truth is about the cougars in this area other than that I and my friend saw one in February of 1996; wether it was a wild animal or an abandonded pet I can't confirm. From the information that was given to me by the Park Ranger and Mr.Reichling the "authorities" really do not want the general population to know about the existence of these cougars. I am hoping that someone might have information on the research about cougars in the Cincinnati, Ohio area and knows of a reference that is reliable enough to cite in this article. I know that first-hand experience or research is not approriate to reference in a WP article so I will not edit the main article to include any of my experience until I can substantiate the edit with a reference.  
P.S., I was not intxicated in anyway when I saw the cougar- I was totally sober and I was a Military Police at the time who was well trained in observation. 
Thanks for your help!  
--Paulsprecker (talk) 02:18, 22 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cougars in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Area

message: :Despite a wealth of hard evidence, sightings of cougars in the eastern United States are not as uncommon as they once were.
This sentence doesn't make sense.  What is the "hard evidence" here? Oddity- (talk) 05:21, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eh? 

message: the copyvio version of this article has been deleted; i replaced it with a stub.  Does not currently contain any copyvios.  --He:ah? 18:47, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hrm.... looking back, it looks like a vandal added that information, and removed a bunch of other information. I'll make amends.... - UtherSRG (talk) 16:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deletion/restoration 

message: I have expanded information about the name of this cat.  When the Panther's range included the entire Southeast it was called a panther over that entire range.  If one visits museums in Tennessee and the Carolinas, old photos of panther use that designation.  The fact that the Florida Population is the only one that currently uses the term is due to the fact that is the the only currently existing population. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.32.6.189 (talk • contribs).
This page has a number of serious problems. Most stem from the fact that the aggregation of all subspecies of North American cougars into a single subspecies, proposed by Culver in 2000 and recognized by MSW3 in 2005, has not been adopted in the scientific literature, which still refers to the original subspecies as distinct, using pre-Culver nomenclature.  The trinomial proposed by Culver for North American cougars, Puma concolor couguar, is the subspecies name that has historically been applied to the Eastern cougar, thought to be extinct or near extinction since about 1900.  Kerr, 1792, is the trinomial authority for the description and naming of the Eastern cougar - it cannot be applied to the North American cougar without annotation by an additional authority.  IUCN, USFWS, ITIS, ICZN, other listings, and both popular and scientific literature use this trinomial and authority exclusively to refer to the Eastern cougar, which is classified as critically endangered.  The taxobox for North American cougar should not point to the IUCN listing for the Eastern cougar - that link should be moved to the first mention of Eastern cougar in the text. The North American cougar as a proposed catch-all subspecies has no declared endangered status, as listing agencies have not addressed the proposed taxonomic revision. Also, "panther" is not the universally-used common name for the Eastern cougar - note the "Eastern Cougar Foundation" and the preferred common name in listings. These issues should be clarified on the North American cougar page, so that readers are not confused.  Given the amount of information and interest related to the Eastern cougar, it might be a good idea to retain a separate page for the Eastern Cougar and keep the North American cougar page as a general discussion of the proposed taxonomic revision, perhaps listing the original subspecies and showing the proposed regrouping. I will leave it to editors who have been working on this page to make any changes and clarifications, and will check back sometime next week.Ecover 16:38, 27 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Panther Designation. 

message: I see this in other areas of Wikipedia too.  People want to think the alligators are further north then they are.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.246.157.157 (talk) 06:28, 16 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  too much attention and speculation on Eastern cougars 

message: 1.  Look at the references (not just the number, but the kind).  They are spotty.
2.  The overall Cougar article covers this subject much better.  And the overlap is subject matter is huge.
3.  There is way too much speculation about fringe theories of relict cougar populations in the East and such.  These are not accepted views and what we have is some fanboy cobbling together fringe references rather than the accepted views of wildlife observers.  If there were really Appalachian cougars, we would have had a cougar killed by hunters or cars in the last 100 years.  But we haven't.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.246.157.157 (talk) 17:35, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think it should be redirected. We have many nominate subspecies articles separate from the species article. We shoudl improved both articles, not sweep this one under the rug. - UtherSRG (talk) 20:44, 25 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  We should delete this article. 

message: The articles give the same taxonomy. 150.212.21.49 (talk) 17:30, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I was just looking at that. Given the older taxonomy with many subspecies, I don't think it's even correct that Puma concolor cougar was 'north american cougar' anyway, it's the eastern cougar.  I DO think that regardless of Culver, we leave FL panther to it's own page because it well enough known that people will search for it, and it has a lot of history to write about.  Seems to me we should have a species-wide 'cougar' page, an Eastern Cougar page with North American Cougar pointing to it, and a FL panther page (stub?) that mentions that wikipedia considers it merged with the eastern cougar.--Paddling bear (talk) 13:36, 2 July 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Merge. Either wikipedia is an organ of science, or not. The variations of the North American cougar - including the Eastern and the  Florida Panther should be noted (no-one is suggesting deletion), but they should be noted in the appropriate place, based on science, not sentiment. To leave the Florida panther separate "because it well enough known that people will search for it, and it has a lot of history to write about." is surely a joke?
The correct place - so far as I can tell (I'm no expert) is  North American Cougar.  I'm basing my argument on the subspecies as define in Cougar; but that article is also deeply flawed, so the taxonomy may be unreliable. Heenan73 (talk) 12:39, 5 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Same as [[Eastern Cougar]]? 

message: On 12/31/2011 this article indicates that the North American cougar is "Critically Endangered".  I went to the url indicated as the source (http://www.iucnredlist.org) and found that there was no status given to any of the subspecies of puma concolor.  The status for the species was "Least Concern" (http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/18868/0).  Further information stated "A remnant Endangered subpopulation persists in Florida ...".  There was no mention of the North American cougar being "Critically Endangered".
:I was wondering about that. It seems curious, given that there have recently been many sightings of this animal in areas where it was not expected to live, that it could be critically endangered.  Is that designation out of date? 12.239.145.114 (talk) 00:49, 20 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I also agree.  The reference does not support the CR classification. It should be removed.   Dger (talk) 21:56, 10 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Conservation Status 

message: Why is the "overall population" section mostly about the places the cat is not expected to be found (but might occasionally be anyway), as opposed to the West, where it is well-established (though I'm not sure I buy "Least Concern")?
I have no objection to the content, but maybe the section heading is less than ideal — could be changed to Possible eastern cougar populations or some such?  Or if it's objected that it's also about re-colonization by western mountain lions, then — I don't know, something else, I'll see if I can think of something.
Also, it would be nice to have additional content on the western populations, but of course I can't command anyone to produce that; just saying it would be nice, if anyone has the material available to do so. --Trovatore (talk) 21:03, 20 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Odd "overall population" section 

message: Egad! Nothing in this entry expands on the subspecies beyond what is already provided in Eastern cougar. Both entries claim to discuss the Puma concolor couguar, and from the lede of Eastern cougar, "recent genetic research suggests all North American cougars are a single subspecies" (someone mentioned this above as well). 
This entry only adds conjecture, WP:Undue and more awful sources than you could shake a stick at.
Over the next day or so I intend to add the necessary tags to mark this page as in dire need, start stripping away some of the more awful and unsupported claims, and seek input from any editors on Eastern cougar page whether it would be worthwhile to merge, as I see they have discussed this lightly in the past, with no apparent outcome. 
If that doesn't take, this entry will need some serious improvement by way of additional content - any big cat enthusiasts are more than welcome (begged!) to help.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bienmanchot (talk • contribs) 15:24, 6 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Horrible Entry 

message: Leo1pard (talk) 14:59, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Page views 

message: See this. Leo1pard (talk) 04:43, 14 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Are Central or North American cougars smaller than Central or [[North American jaguar]]s? 

message: — Assignment last updated by Sarahsoobin (talk) 04:28, 10 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: California Natural History