Quote:
Originally Posted by redir
Ah! I even did a search for 'cougar' to see if the story was already posted. I guess a mountain lion is the same thing. We aint got them in the Appalachians.
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Well, not anymore, but they used to range over most of the eastern part of North America, until they were driven out by European settlers - and some say they are starting to migrate back. Cougars have the widest range of any land mammal in the Americas, ranging from the Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes in Chile. While now primarily found only in the western US, there is a still a subspecies of cougars holding out in Florida, called the Florida Panther (after which the Miami NHL Hockey team is named).
The cougar holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most names, with over 40 names in English alone (including puma, mountain lion, panther, etc). Here in New England they were called Catamounts, and that name is still used by the U. of Vermont sports teams, a ski area in Massachusetts, and many other place and business names.