- As far as we know, the eastern puma was a mid-size subspecies of cougar (or mountain lion) with wide shoulders and small skull. Originally there were 11 subspecies of cougars native to North America, but only two of them - the Eastern cougar and Florida cougar - were found east of the Mississippi River.
- There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of the cougar in several decades, dating back nearly 80 years.
- The population is believed to have been largely killed off in the 18th and 19th centuries as farmers established plots across the US, waging open campaigns of extinction against the predators and destroying their natural habitats through deforestation. The white tailed deer that the cougars, also known as eastern pumas, hunted were also largely wiped out, cutting off an essential part of their food chain.
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