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Big cats in britain; Your opinions?
Topic Started: Jun 15 2012, 10:07 PM (5,228 Views)
Creeper
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Carboniferous Arthropod

Cougars in the Eastern US are well established and supported by well documented evidence, there is really no debate that they are established in the Midwest and Eastern US once again.
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Vivyx
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Felines, sharks, birds, arthropods
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Isn't the Eastern Cougar extinct now?
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Creeper
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Carboniferous Arthropod

Yes the genetic Eastern Cougar is extinct, the cougars that now populate the range are believed to be immigrants from Canada moving down into New England and the Great Lake region, and from the Rockies into the Midwest and Southern States.
Just wanted to add that its debatable that the Eastern Cougar was genetically distinct from the Western counterpart, we could assume that some of the genes they carried are gone though. A sizable percent of the eastern population during early European colonization were reported as melanistic, but faced with the fact that no modern records of black cougars exist it may be that those genes were unique to the eastern population.
Edited by Creeper, Mar 9 2015, 05:01 AM.
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Ceratodromeus
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Aspiring herpetologist
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I don't believe big cat sightings in the UK aren't indigenous species, rather released/escaped pets.
Edited by Ceratodromeus, Mar 9 2015, 05:12 AM.
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Full Throttle
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Apex Predator
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I highly doubt there is a viable breeding population descended from sporadic releases/escapees, but it cannot be denied that at one time and another big cats, including tigers and lions, have been living wild in the British countryside, albeit if only for a short duration of time.

I think that when all of the released/escaped cats that have not been recaptured or destroyed eventually die of natural causes, this will mean an end to the phenomenon, barring more releases and escapes of course.

I think this is what happened here where I live, the "chase panther" was big news for several years, and I have an acquaintance who was convinced he'd come across one of it's kills, but there hasn't been a sighting or a kill in years, if it was indeed a big cat, it has probably long since died without breeding.

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kingkazma
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Catboy
Mar 9 2015, 03:16 AM
Isn't the Eastern Cougar extinct now?
yeah, but westies still come over and kill our dogs having bobcats take the blame.
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