Eastern Cougar Officially Declared Extinct

"Officially extinct"

Scientists have officially declared the Eastern Cougar extinct. The cat was on the endangered species list, but after 70 years with "no credible evidence" (which would mean, "No body so we don't believe it"), it has been declared extinct.

The only big cat like it now in the eastern side of the U.S. is the Florida Panther, but only about 160 are left in the wild.

Scientists say the eastern cougar is extinct. They could be right, but what about all the mystery cat sightings on the eastern side of North America? Scholastic.com says there have been 108 sightings between 1900 and 2010, but I don't know where they got that. There are a heck of a lot more sightings of eastern panthers.  There are thousands of sightings. Escaped exotics, scientists will say. Some of them definitely are that. Do I think all of the sightings are escapes? No. If people continue seeing panthers on the eastern side of the United States, I think the Eastern Panther lives on. Just because scientists say something is extinct doesn't mean they are right. But, if they are right, this is really sad. : (

You can see more about the extinction of the eastern panther on Mysterious Universe. 

Eastern Panthers - dead because of man