Once widely dispersed throughout the eastern United States, the mountain lion was all but wiped out by the turn of the last century. Cougars were killed in vast numbers, and states even held bounties. A nearly catastrophic decline in white-tailed deer — the main prey of mountain lions — also contributed to the species' extirpation.What do you suppose extirpation means? The root word is "extirpate."
I also find it intruiguing that cougars have so many names for the same animal: puma, panther, mountain lion. According to the Guiness Book of World Records (2004), the American Cougar has more names for the same animal than any other -- more than forty!
How many other names for "cougar" can you find?
