The Nittany Lion is a regional name for the Eastern Cougar. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) formally declared the Eastern Cougar extinct in 2018, removing it from the Endangered Species List. This declaration confirms that the subspecies, which once ranged across the eastern half of the United States, is no longer a living part of the North American ecosystem. While cougars thrive in the West and the Florida Panther persists, the specific Eastern Cougar subspecies is gone.
The Identity of the Nittany Lion
The Nittany Lion refers to the Eastern Cougar, scientifically classified as Puma concolor couguar. This large cat was also known historically as a puma, mountain lion, or catamount. It was one of the most widely distributed mammals in the Western Hemisphere and served as a top predator across the forests and mountains of the northeastern United States, including Pennsylvania’s Nittany Valley, where it derived its local name.
The cougar’s historical range extended across every state east of the Mississippi River, from Maine to Georgia and west to Missouri. As a powerful carnivore, its diet primarily consisted of ungulates, particularly white-tailed deer, but it also preyed on smaller mammals. The Eastern Cougar played a significant role in the local food web by controlling herbivore populations.
The Extinction Event and Official Status
The decline of the Eastern Cougar began in the 19th century due to human activities. European settlers viewed the predators as a threat to livestock and a competitor for wild game, leading to widespread persecution. State governments often encouraged this hunting through extensive bounty programs targeting the big cats.
The loss of the cougar’s primary prey also severely hampered its survival; white-tailed deer were hunted to near-extinction across the East by the late 1800s. Simultaneously, the cats’ habitat was destroyed through extensive deforestation for logging, mining, and human settlement. By the turn of the 20th century, the Eastern Cougar was functionally extirpated from most of its range.
The last confirmed wild Eastern Cougar sighting occurred in Maine in 1938. Although placed on the federal endangered species list in 1973, the USFWS conducted a formal review decades later that concluded no breeding population remained. The agency officially removed the Eastern Cougar from the list in 2018, formally recognizing its extinction. This designation confirms that the subspecies has likely been biologically extinct for many decades.
Addressing Modern Sightings and Confusion
Despite the official extinction status, reports of cougar sightings across the East are frequent, which contributes to public confusion. Wildlife biologists attribute these modern sightings to a few distinct causes, none involving the extinct Eastern Cougar subspecies. The most common explanation for unconfirmed reports is the misidentification of other animals, such as large bobcats, coyotes, or domestic dogs.
In cases where a cougar is physically confirmed in the East, genetic evidence shows these animals typically have one of two origins. Many are individuals that have escaped or been released from private captivity or zoos, sometimes possessing South American genetics. The second source is the natural dispersal of Western Cougars (Puma concolor).
These young male cougars travel hundreds or thousands of miles from established Western breeding populations, such as those in the Dakotas. While these rare travelers occasionally make it as far east as Connecticut, they are considered transient individuals, not members of a reproducing population. They represent a different genetic population than the extinct Eastern Cougar, though they are part of the same species, Puma concolor.