North American cougar
| North American cougar | |
|---|---|
| A cougar at Wildlife Prairie Park in Illinois | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Felinae |
| Genus: | Puma |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | P. c. couguar |
| Trinomial name | |
| Puma concolor couguar (Kerr, 1792) | |
| Synonyms | |
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The North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is a cougar subspecies in North America. It is the biggest cat in North America (North American jaguars are fairly small), and the second largest cat in the New World. It was once common in eastern North America and is still prevalent in the western half of the continent. This subspecies includes populations in western Canada, the western United States, Florida, Mexico and Central America, and possibly South America northwest of the Andes Mountains. It thus includes the extirpated eastern cougar and extant Florida panther populations.