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Eastern cougar (''Puma concolor couguar'') is a type of cougar. It is considered by many puma biologists to be a subspecies of the North American cougar, while others believe recent genetic research suggests all North American cougars are a single subspecies.〔〔 The eastern subspecies was deemed extinct by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) evaluation in 2011, while a parallel Canadian organization has taken no position on the question. According to the Cherokee Indians who historically occupied the Southeast U.S, many of whom living today in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, the Cougar has always roamed their sacred lands and also plays a major role in their creation stories and society. The cougar is one of seven names representing their traditional village clans. ==History of taxonomy== In 1792, Robert Kerr of the Royal Physical Society and Royal Society of Surgeons assigned the name ''Felis couguar'' to eastern North America cougars north of Florida.〔 John Audubon in 1851 believed that cougars in both North and South America were indistinguishable. The eastern cougar was first assigned to the subspecies ''Felis concolor couguar'' and the Florida panther (''F. c. coryi'').〔 Young and Goldman based their description of the eastern subspecies on their examination of eight of the existing 26 historic specimens.〔 In 1955, Jackson described a new subspecies, the Wisconsin puma (''F. c. schorgeri''), from a small sample of skulls.〔 A 1981 taxonomy (Hall) accepted ''F. c. schorgeri'', the Wisconsin puma, and also extended the range of the eastern puma into Nova Scotia and mapped the Florida panther’s (''F. c. coryi'') range as far north as South Carolina and southwestern Tennessee.〔Hall, E.R. 1981. The mammals of North America, second edition. John Wiley and Sons, New York〕 In 2000, Culver et al., recommended that based on recent genetic research, all North American cougars be classified as a single subspecies, ''Puma concolor couguar'' following the oldest named subspecies (Kerr〔 in 1792).〔 The 2005 edition of ''Mammal Species of the World''〔 followed Culver’s recommendations. This revision was made by Dr. W. Chris Wozencraft of Bethel University, Indiana, as the sole reviewer. However, the publication's Web site as of 2011, as well as that of its affiliate, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, continued to mention the ''Puma concolor couguar'' (or eastern cougar) as a subspecies of ''Puma concolor''.〔(''Puma concolor'' ). Mammal Species of the World. Bucknell.edu〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=North American Mammals: Puma concolor )〕 Dr. Judith Eger, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, chair of the American Society of Mammalogists checklist committee, believes that the Culver work was improper, as it offered no evaluation of the existing subspecies of the puma and failed to include morphological, ecological, and behavioral considerations. According to Eger, the Culver revision is only accepted by some puma biologists.〔 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to accept the Young and Goldman taxonomy. "While more recent genetic information introduces significant ambiguities, a full taxonomic analysis is necessary to conclude that a revision to the Young and Goldman (1946) taxonomy is warranted," the agency said in 2011. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「eastern cougar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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