The eastern cougar, which is also known as the catamount, mountain lion and ghost cat, has been declared extinct by the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The eight-foot-long creatures, which once used to roam from Canada to South America, wiped out due to the disappearance of its habitat. Fanatical hunting of the creature during 18th and 19th centuries also contributed to its extinction. The last eastern cougar was seen around seven decades ago in 1930s.

A wildlife biologist, Mark McCollough said, “There was a general attitude back in the late 1700s and early 1800s that any predator was a bad predator and some were created worse than others and cougars were among the worst.”

It may be noted her that cougars can still be seen in the eastern cougar's historic range, but the Fish & Wildlife Service claims that all of them are either western cougars or South American cougars that were kept as pets and were released into the wild.

In 1982, the Fish & Wildlife Service introduced a recovery plan for the eastern cougar but now the Service recommended that eastern cougar should be removed from the country’s endangered species list as it no longer exists.

Separately, a new research by UC Berkeley scientists warned that if the destructive effects of human actions on ecosystem are not stopped and the current rate of extinction goes on as it is, Earth could lose about three-quarters of its species in just three centuries to come.