North American cougar

North American cougar
A cougar at Wildlife Prairie Park in Illinois
Conservation status
Secure  (NatureServe)[2] (Western and Central North America)
Critically Imperiled  (NatureServe)[3] (Yuma population)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Felinae
Genus:	Puma
Species:	P. concolor
Subspecies:	P. c. couguar[1]
Trinomial name
Puma concolor couguar[1] (Kerr, 1792)
Synonyms
P. c. arundivaga P. c. aztecus P. c. browni P. c. californica P. c. costaricensis (Merriam, 1901) P. c. floridana P. c. hippolestes P. c. improcera P. c. kaibabensis P. c. mayensis P. c. missoulensis P. c. olympus P. c. oregonensis P. c. schorgeri P. c. stanleyana P. c. vancouverensis P. c. youngi

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).^[4][5] 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.^[6] It thus includes the extirpated eastern cougar and extant Florida panther populations.