The eastern cougar has been declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wildlife officials recommended the removal of the eastern cougar from the endangered species list.

The service conducted a formal review of reports of sightings and concluded the animals were other cougar subspecies, such as an South American subspecies that escaped from captivity and western subspecies that migrated eastward.

What is now believed to have been the last eastern cougar was trapped in Somerset County in 1938.


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