Cougars no more

Not those kind of Cougs. The real ones. Eastern, to be specific. Wednesday was a sad day for anyone who even remotely associates themselves with anything badass. The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the most badass animal of modern memory, the Eastern Cougar, officially extinct. While this has long been expected among wildlife enthusiasts, the confirmation means that the largest member of the cat family once found East of the Mississippi is off the Endangered Species list and onto the officially no long with us list. Read more about it here.

USFW officials determined that the few sightings made East of the Mississippi River since 1990 have been of escaped or released Cougars, and that not a single wild breeding pair exists on the right side of the Mighty Mississippi. In the chart below courtesy of the Eastern Cougar Network (bet they filed for that domain name early on), blue dots mean confirmed sightings beyond a reasonable doubt, red are probable sightings and yellow represents unconfirmed sightings. Suspicious Michigonians. The green swath in Florida represents Florida Panther populations, an animal not officially a member of the Cougar family. RIP, big cat.