To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Forbid the killing of cougars where a self sustaining population is not yet present!
Mountain lions... pumas... catamounts... panthers... cougars. Many names for one magnificent North American species: Puma concolor cougar. They need to be allowed to restore their former range to once again include the eastern U.S. and help control the herd of white tailed deer, but they are too often shot on sight -- even Florida panthers that stray into Georgia. That needs to stop.
The US Fish & Wildlife service recently declared the Eastern mountain lion extinct; many justify the killing of stray cougars as the taking of a non-native species. Yet, following mitochondrial DNA research, the canonical Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.) recognized only one subspecies in North America. Furthermore, the identification of the various subspecies is only possible after careful study by a biologist.
Please sign this petition; ask your legislators to make the killing of mountain lions illegal except for in case of exceptional danger or if and when the population is self-sufficient at each state's level.
The US Fish & Wildlife service recently declared the Eastern mountain lion extinct; many justify the killing of stray cougars as the taking of a non-native species. Yet, following mitochondrial DNA research, the canonical Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.) recognized only one subspecies in North America. Furthermore, the identification of the various subspecies is only possible after careful study by a biologist.
Please sign this petition; ask your legislators to make the killing of mountain lions illegal except for in case of exceptional danger or if and when the population is self-sufficient at each state's level.
Why is this important?
I am a conservationist and educator who deeply cares about biodiversity. As the disappearance of cougars has led to a trophic cascade of disappearing native birds, invertebrates and plants (see http://www.cof.orst.edu/leopold/cougars/OpenHouseposter.pdf), I was aghast when I learned that cougars attempting to recolonize the East are being killed -- without punishment from many states' local authorities! In order to re-establish a more balanced ecosystem, keystone predators must be allowed to recolonize the eastern US.