That have environment extending throughout the Yukon on the Andes, brand new cougar is the widest starting property creature from the Americas due to their capability to live-in almost every other ecosystem
It holds the Guinness World record in order to have more brands of any creature in the world, which have forty in English alone. Additionally it is the new widest-varying local home animal on the Americas, yet try declining through the a lot of the diversity. Mongabay discussions which have big pet professional Dr. Howard Quigley in regards to the status and you can research ramifications of your elusive, secretive, and you may novel cougar.
It’s considered that the newest forebear of cougar moved from China toward United states along the Bering homes connection everything 8 million years back, where they turned into the various cat lineages establish now. Cougars then invaded South usa about three mil years back if the isthmus from Panama molded to connect the two continents. Genetic research shows you to definitely the present Us populations all are quite similar, recommending a populace bottleneck contemporaneous into the megafauna extinction of approximately ten,100 in years past during which highest North american mammals for 
example Smilodon ran extinct. Experts believe that during this period cougars was indeed mainly or totally extirpated about entire of one’s region, which have the present populations refounded of the cougars out of Southern Western.
Although it can also be think about so you can 220 lbs, making it next premier felid on the Americas (following the jaguar), the newest cougar is basically so much more related to shorter pet variety such as for instance given that ocelots and you can lynx as opposed in order to lions and you will tigers. To begin with, it actually was even grouped in the same genus once the residential pet (Felis), but in 1993 got its own genus, Puma, it offers featuring its nearest way of living relative, the newest jaguarundi.