Mark McCollough(USFW -Maine Field Office- Lead Author of the just published "Eastern Puma 5 year review) and I had a good phone conversation today about future prospects for Cougar re-introductions into areas of the Eastern USA that have adequate continuous blocs of wildlands, suitable prey populations and low densities of roadways.................With the publishing of his Review that has stated that the "Eastern Cougar is extinct", it is likely that USFW will take the steps to delist the Eastern Cougar from consideration for Endangered Status which will effectively eliminate our National Government from participating in any type Cougar re-wilding..................Mark is sympathetic to many of us who feel that with the Cougar being the same genotype across North America, our USFW folks should indeed be working to designate critical habitat for "Puma concolor couguar" in the Appalachians, New England, the Great Lakes States as well as suitable Southern and Midwestern locales..............Mark feels that Helen McGinnis and myself have been asking him "spot on" questions about why the final outcome of his study reached the conclusions it did when in fact Cougars are living in Florida(Eastern USA) and in fact have been "tuned up" with Cougars from Texas(Western residing Cougars) to prevent in-breeding from taking place in the isolated Florida habitat..................This infusion of genes from Texas was allowed because in fact a cougar is a cougar is a cougar regardless of North American locale....................Mark Dowling of THE COUGAR FOUNDATION also enters in below regarding the status of whether in fact there is a breeding population of Cougars in Ontario as some have suggested.........Also, Helen Mcginnis challenging the claims by Mark that DNA collected by "hair snares" is no longer a valid method of determining whether populations of cougars exist in a particular locale................Ladies and Gents, the controversy, politics, actions and inactions as it relates to charismatic carnivore re-wilding continues to become increasingly controversial and having all the earmarks of "SCIENCE BEING TAMPERED WITH" by those who feel their economic gain will be severely compromised by Cougars and Wolves "COMING HOME TO ROOST IN THE EAST"---------SUCKS THAT THE FACTS DO NOT WIN OVER THE POLITICS!!!!!

From: Helen McGinnis <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net>
To: Mark Dowling <mdowlingecn@charter.net>; Mark_McCollough@fws.gov <Mark_McCollough@fws.gov>; Meril, Rick
Sent: Mon Mar 07 17:27:02 2011

Subject: Re: response concerning Ontario

Mark,
You say, The days of being able to accept "DNA confirmed" hair snares and scat are long gone.  The Michigan fiasco confirmed how reliable that method is.

I thought that the DNA analyses of Michigan scat that Swanson and Rusz published in 2006 were faulty because the methodology was incorrect, not because it is impossible to identify species by DNA analysis of scat and hair samples.  Has it now been determine that it is impossible to identify species by DNA analysis of hair?  If so, why are cougar and jaguar biologists still collecting hair samples?

__________________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Dowling
To: Mark_McCollough@fws.gov ; 'Helen McGinnis' ; Rick.Meril@warnerbros.com
Sent: Monday, March 07, 2011 7:51 PM
Subject: RE: response concerning Ontario

 Excuse my bluntness.

I would like to know where exactly the "breeding population" of cougars exists in Ontario, and how it was documented. I would like to know the specific GPS coordinates of where this population is located, how many breeding females with kittens were confirmed and in what manner.I would also like to see this study independently confirmed by a second set of credible researchers.

The days of being able to accept "DNA confirmed" hair snares and scat are long gone.  The Michigan fiasco confirmed how reliable that method is.

Until we see compelling scientific evidence of a breeding population of cougars in Ontario, I can tell you that we will be taking these claims with a grain of salt. I would also like someone to explain how a cougar population can avoid detection, given the myriad forms of direct and  incidental confirmation, including roads, incidental trapping, hound hunting, thousands of trailcams, etc.


If I were the USF&WS, I would not take these Canadian claims seriously until they produce the type of documentation outlined above.  The Cougar Network has conducted extensive research on this subject over the past 9 years.  At this point, we see no credible evidence of a cougar population in Ontario, or anywhere else in eastern Canada for that matter. 

___________________________________________________________________

From: Mark_McCollough@fws.gov <Mark_McCollough@fws.gov>
To: Helen McGinnis <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net>; Meril, Rick
Cc: mdowlingecn@charter.net <mdowlingecn@charter.net>
Sent: Mon Mar 07 05:32:58 2011
Subject: response concerning Ontario

Rick and Helen

Concerning Ontario(Cougars):

Our review included Canada, but we did not send questionnaires to Canadian provinces (because the US. listed entity did not include Canada). Nevertheless, I contacted Canadian provincial officials during the review and did talk to biologists in Ontario about status. I also talked and emailed with Helen and Stuart Kenn on numerous occasions concerning Ontario. We reviewed all published peer-reviewed scientific papers concerning cougars in Ontario. We also incorporated the COSEWIC cougar reviews.

Appendix B of the review documents 3 Ontario cougar occurrences with a high level of confirmation. CougarNet only confirms the 1999 animal.

I would like to see a scientific document that confirms the existence of a persistent, breeding population on eastern cougars in Ontario that has survived since colonial times. I would like to see the evidence that they are breeding. There is not a state or province in the East that could not assemble cougar sighting dots on a map, a map of cougars reports of higher confidence level and claim that cougars are present - because in some cases they are. Even our review documents 110 cougars present in eastern North America since 1900. The question is "what is their origin?" Our review delves into this question in great detail.

I full understand the genetics status of cougars. Has the Ontario government polled cougar biologists for their opinion of whether all N. American cougars should be collapsed into one subspecies? We did... We also discussed this in great detail with the Society fo American Mammalogists taxonomy committee who makes and finalizes such determinations. Although I fully accept the genetic evidence for one North American subspecies, given disagreement among cougar biologists, the Society suggests a a complete, peer-reviewed subspecies evaluation be done before this determination is made.

Many of the cougars that have turned up recently in eastern Canada have been of South American origin (i.e. captive origin). Is Canadian provincial policy to protect these animals? Interesting...

I have been in touch with our neighbors in New Brunswick (I am from Maine) and am unaware that the province has evidence of a persistent breeding population of eastern cougar subspecies (despite Bruce Wright's books). Like Maine or other states, an animal turns up from time to time (see Appendix B), which is not adequate proof that the eastern cougar has persisted.

Thanks, Mark

*****************************************************************
Mark McCollough, Ph.D. Endangered Species Specialist
U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Maine Field Office
17 Godfrey Drive, Suite #2
Orono, ME 04473
Phone: (207) 866-3344 x115
Cell phone: 207 944-5709
Fax: (207) 866-3351
Email: mark_mccollough@fws.gov

__________________________________________________________________

Subject
Eastern cougars--Recent dialogue between the two Ricks--Rosatte and Meril

Dr. Rick Rosatte is a Senior Research Scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. The messages below were sent to Rick Meril, blogger of the Coyotes, Wolves, Cougars...forever! blogspot. http://coyotes-wolves-cougars.blogspot.com/

Wildlife biologists in Ontario and probably Quebec are not insisting that only 100% pure eastern cougars should be "saved." They realize that a cougar is a cougar is a cougar and will play the same ecosystem role.