The Panther Debate is Officially Dead

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Eastern cougars, preying mostly on white-tailed deer in forests and coastal marshes, were declared endangered in 1973, even though no sightings had been documented for three decades. The last of their kind on record was killed by a hunter in Maine in 1938.

Sightings since then turned out to be wayward visitors from the West. For example, a lone male mountain lion was killed on a Connecticut highway in 2011 after traveling thousands of miles (kilometers) from South Dakota through Minnesota, Wisconsin and New York, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

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Agree to disagree.

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Conservation groups said removal of the Eastern puma from the endangered species list clears the way for states like New York -- where the Adirondack Mountains contain prime cougar habitat -- to re-establish a mountain lion presence with animals imported from burgeoning populations in the West.

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They are being delisted from the endangered species listing as a result.

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re-establish a mountain lion presence with animals imported from burgeoning populations in the West.

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I find it funny that northeastern states like New York would rather reestablish a wild cat population to control deer than just letting people hunt.

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I find it funny that northeastern states like New York would rather reestablish a wild cat population to control deer than just letting people hunt.

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Debate isn't dead. There is no debate that wild cougars have been confirmed in "eastern" states. They are just western cougars

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