Talk:Cougar/Archive 2

/Archive1

This is an Extremely Well Written Article

This is an extremely well-written article-- worthy of praise. The writing is clear, strong and information-rich. I really enjoyed reading it.

Sean7phil 05:50, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree, it seems to have been written with reader clarity firmly in mind; an attribute of writing that never fails to impress.

Cheetah migration

This sentence in the Taxonomy section strikes me as odd: The Cheetah, after diverging from Puma, migrated backwards. From the context, it implies that the Cheetah species in question is the African Cheetah and not the prehistoric American cheetah. Does this mean that the predecessors to the Cougar migrated from Asia to the Americas, and then some of them later walked back over the Bering Land Bridge and across Asia to settle in Africa? Kla'quot 09:10, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

I will re-read Culver. I've shuffled the subspecies to a subsection. Marskell 09:27, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Ack. I think it was in Johnson, not Culver. I'm going to remove it for now—we appear to be contradicting ourselves wrt our American Cheetah page. It needs a paper specific to the species. I realize wandering from one end of the globe to the other doesn't make intuitive sense. Marskell 09:43, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Johnson: "The second migration (M2) relocated a common ancestor to five felid lineages (ocelot, lynx, puma, leopard cat, and domestic cat) across the Bering land bridge to North America for the first time, 8.5 to 8.0 Ma (Fig. 2)"..."Among them was the cheetah, which originated in the North American puma lineage (Fig. 1) and migrated to central Asia and Africa (M5)."

So, this seems to suggest an American origin for the Cheetah. But I'll leave it out as a non-secure point. Marskell 10:03, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Just got hold of the Johnson paper. Holy cow, this is a cool fact. I'd like to get that in somehow. Very cool. Kla'quot 17:11, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Section break

99% there. I'm in the process of reading the sources on evolutionary history and would like to work on that section a little bit. I think I can do this in the next 24 hours. You've done a terrific job on the article. Kla'quot 18:20, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

On taxonomy, I'd rather say a little very securely than a lot with an even a little uncertainty. Jaguar#Taxonomy says a lot, but it was rewritten by User:KimvdLinde who (her grumbling about Wikipedia aside) is a professional. If you really want to dig into the evolutionary history, we should do it on Felidae itself. Marskell 20:29, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree, and have reworked the section boldly but (I think) within the bounds of my limited expertise. If you could check my recent edits for accuracy, etc. that would be great. Kla'quot 00:00, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

See here. We cannot securely make this statement so I have removed. In fact, your intuitive objections of the other day may have been most accurate. If something goes back in "effectively unresolved" will have to be the critical point. Marskell 13:36, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

(Outdent) OK, let's go over this. 1. The Cheetah diverged from Puma in the Americas and migrated backwards. The Cougar and Jaguarundi are most closely related to the modern Cheetah. Easy. 2. The Cheetah emerged in the Old World. Puma shares a clade with all of Leopardus, Lynx, Prionailurus, and Felis with divergences after leaving the Old World. The Cougar and Jaguarandi are necessarily more closely related to species of all these genera than to the Cheetah.

Open to correction, but I think these are the two basic possibilities. Who knows. Currently we have "The supposed American origins of the modern Cheetah are thus suspect and its exact relationship to the Cougar remains unresolved," which avoids OR.

I realize my latest version is thicker than Kla'quot's revisions, but I think it more accurate. Perhaps I'll look up one of the sources and see if I can get a response. Marskell 17:51, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

A few thoughts:

• The three primary sources we have (Johnson, Culver, and Barnett) all seem to say that the closest extant relative of the Puma cats is the African cheetah, not the other New World cats. This is most clear from looking at the "family tree" figues in Johnson and Barnett. It sounds like you know of some controversy on this point - am I missing something?
• Where it gets interesting is how the African cheetah got to Africa: Did its ancestors walk to the Americas and then walk back (as espoused by Johnson), or have all of its ancestors been from the Old World (as espoused by Barnett). Am I understanding the sources correctly?
• Currently, half the section on Taxonomy and evolution (aside from the Subspecies list), is about the cheetahs. Can we simplify the third paragraph down to a few sentences, e.g. "The closest extant relative of the Cougar and Jaguarundi is the Cheetah. It has been suggested that ancestors of the Cheetah diverged from Puma lineage in the Americas and migrated back to Asia. Another theory is that the most recent common ancestor of the Puma cats and the Cheetah lived in Asia." I suggest moving our coverage of how the African cheetah got to Africa into the Cheetah and perhaps Felidae articles.
• I don't think we have to mention the American cheetah in this article. It's an extinct species that most people have never heard of. A complete article on a species should identify its position in relation to extant taxa, but discussing extinct relatives is more detail than necessary. Kla'quot 09:15, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

"The closest extant relative of the Cougar and Jaguarundi is the Cheetah." No, we cannot say this unequivocally. Barnett directly undermines the other sources.

Barnett: "It has been suggested that the cheetahs originated in the New World [4] and later migrated to the Old World. However, the mitochondrial sequence analysis together with recent fossil data (Supplemental Data) suggests that they originated in the Old World and that a puma-like cat then invaded North America around six million years ago [5, 7 and 8]. Around 3.2 million years ago, this ancestor diverged into Miracinonyx and Puma."

Johnson: "A more recent clade, including four lineages (lynx, puma, leopard cat, and domestic cat lineages) (node 5), is well supported"..."The second migration (M2) relocated a common ancestor to five felid lineages (ocelot, lynx, puma, leopard cat, and domestic cat) across the Bering land bridge to North America for the first time, 8.5 to 8.0 Ma"

So, is Barnett's "puma-like cat" the ancestor of Johnson's "well supported clade"? One or the other is wrong. Put another way, they are both suggesting that the Cheetah is most closely related to the Cougar, but if that is true in the way that Barnett suggests then Johnson must be interpreted as suggesting that Cheetah is not most closely related to the Cougar. Note that Barnett's graph shows Leopardus and Felis diverging before the Cheetah, which would have to be in the Old World by his reasoning—this is a direct contradiction.

However, I agree about the over-specificity. I wrote it this way so that would be all unpacked. We might shorten it to "It has been suggested that the closest extant relative of the Cougar and Jaguarundi is the Cheetah, however the research is equivocal (cf. American Cheetah)" and relocate to last. Marskell 09:29, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Whew. Well, I trimmed the section somewhere between our two suggestions, and filled out the American Cheetah page. Your right that Cheetah itself needs a going over in this regard, but that's a larger project. Marskell 11:22, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

I think the version you put in is good (I just tweaked it a bit for style issues). Perhaps it could be made more precise in terms of what in the relationship is "unresolved" but I'm not sure yet exactly how. I'll try to take a closer look at the sourcesKla'quot 06:00, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Very interesting stuff. Talk pages are often more interesting than the articles! :-) About the "Did its ancestors walk to the Americas and then walk back" thing above, I'm sure Kla'quot didn't mean it to sound that way, but it sounds like you are asking whether a single specimen walked in a particular direction, when I'm sure talking about population expansion and migrations due to climate changes, or following prey, over millions of years, is a more accurate way of expressing what is happening here, particularly as a generalist species is not as restricted in range as a specialist species. I'd be interested in seeing speculative range maps for species that existed at the time of the Bering land bridge. You would probably get ranges extending all the way across Africa, Eurasia and the Americas. The range of the brown bear is similarly spread across two continents. Carcharoth 15:31, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Of the lineages Johnson '06 suggests diverged in the Americas, only Puma and Leopardus are solely extant there now. Lynx is found in the New and Old World, while all the other small felines are solely Afro-Eurasian. Intuitively, Johnson is wrong. (They all migrated back and left no relatives behind?) And that's entirely dissatisfying because we're using that paper on a number of articles now. Marskell 16:11, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, write to Mr Johnson and tell him! Maybe he has an explanation for what happened to those "left behind"? Carcharoth 16:22, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I might. I just searched "Sam Johnson" to come up with some joke or other to reply with, and arrived at a U.S. politician. Bah. Marskell 16:57, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree, talk pages are great! BTW there have been a few times in my Wikipedian life when I've put in one of those "wow" science facts and had to be careful with my edit summary out of concern that the RC patrollers would think it was a joke. Anyway... "Migration" over millions of years does usually mean a slow process in which the locus of a population gradually shifts, however intercontinental migration necessarily means there were a few individuals who were born in one continent and gave birth in another. Regarding the lack of wild descendants for some of the small feline lineages in the New World, this isn't surprising. They may have vanished in the Pleistocene along with North America's cougars, for example. The New World has lost most of its large mammals. Kla'quot 06:00, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Cougar vs panther

Hi, just a quick question: I don't quite understand this sentence: In North America, particularly the United States, panther by itself refers to a Cougar when the context implies a local species, such as the Florida panther population. What is a "local species"? Would it be accurate to say, "In North America, particularly the United States, the term panther is sometimes used to mean Cougar, particularly in reference to the Florida panther"? Kla'quot 05:14, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Of all the sentences on this page, that may well be the only one that I've left intact since I began editing. Just tweaked it. Marskell 08:47, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Over-specifics

I have shuffled and abbreviated the Ontario references that were placed in the lead. In expanding this page, over-specifics regarding eastern sightings were removed. The problem is, if we add a specific province or state then someone else would add their province or state and someone else will add theirs and so on. When this goes on the mainpage in a few days I'm sure "I saw it in my backyard"-type info is the first thing that's going to be added; we should avoid this.

Also, I'd say that for Wikipedia's puposes a "confirmed" eastern population exists once a .gov source or an organization like the IUCN says so. Everything else is a "suggested" population. Marskell 09:52, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Lone wolves

Hi everyone, I'm wondering about an unexplained revert of an IP's edits this earlier today: [1]. The reverted edits are certainly good-faith and seem constructive to me. Perhaps others disagree? Can we discuss this? Kla'quot 03:30, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Do we really need to source that felines are pound-for-pound more lethal than canines? I was presuming it was a disgruntled wolf fan. Not the best source because it's a newspaper, but the relevant quotes:

"But wolves do not always win. Males, at 125 pounds, can go after a 110-pound female cougar if they are in a pack, but a lone wolf is a bagatelle for a 160-pound male cougar. Smith has recorded two instances of cougars ambushing and killing single wolves -- one an adult, the other a pup.

"A lion has two sets of lethal weapons -- teeth and claws, whereas wolves' principal weapon is just teeth," said National Park Service cougar specialist Kerry Murphy. Cougars can dominate as long as they stay in the rocks or in the forest, where they can climb a tree. "We're still talking about dogs and cats," he said."

Bagatelle is certainly an odd choice. Did he mean bagel? Marskell 07:47, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

What does this sentence mean?

Feline immunodeficiency virus, an endemic AIDS-like disease in cats, is well-adapted to the Cougar.

It needs some explanation for those of us who don't understand the lingo of immunology. Anchoress 02:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Feline immunodeficiency virus is similar to AIDS. It is well-adapted to the Cougar; it can infect multiple species for felines, but is particularly suited for attacking the Cougar. - UtherSRG (talk) 02:30, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Cool. Did you add that to the article? Anchoress 03:30, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I added it. Here's the abstract. I think we have the basics right in this sentence. Marskell 08:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Capitalization?

Should the word "Cougar" really be capitalized throughout this article? —PHaze 02:47, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes. See WP:BIRD for the logic as to why. - UtherSRG (talk) 02:49, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

WP:MoS#Animals,_plants,_and_other_organisms says "Common (vernacular) names have been a hotly debated topic, and it is unresolved whether the common names of species start with a capital. As a matter of truce, both styles are acceptable (except for proper names)." In any case "cougar" should only be capitalized when it refers to the species. For example, you should not write "male Cougars", because the plural refers to a collection of individuals, not the species. You can write "male cougars" or "the male Cougar" instead. If "cougar" is capitalized when it refers to the species, then all species names in the article should be capitalized. -Pgan002 03:04, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I like the general animals guideline better than the Birds guideline (and the cougar is not a bird, luckily enough). Having the various animal names treated as proper names here makes it read oddly. -- JHunterJ 20:11, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

That's nice. What one "likes" makes no difference. - UtherSRG (talk) 20:14, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Guidelines make a difference. Editors' collective likes determine consensus, which makes a difference. Sheesh. Now, why do you prefer (or "like") the Birds guidelines better than the Animals guidelines for animal-but-not-bird cougars? -- JHunterJ 21:20, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The thing is, there isn't an animal guideline as such. It's just a bit of a mess. Marskell 07:15, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The three other feline species the article cites in the introduction (jaguar, lion, tiger) do not follow the format of capitalizing the species' name within the article. I don't see the relevance of style usage for birds. So far as a trend is evident, it's against what's been done here in the cougar article. 69.226.74.4 15:57, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

"New World"

The term "New World" seems to me like a backward term. Why not use "America" or something similar?

Fewer syllables than "North and South America", perhaps. Besides, if you look up New World you find the term is still current in zoological and botanical circles. TCC (talk) (contribs) 05:36, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The range of the puma

The second sentence of this article states that "This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any terrestrial mammal other than humans in the Western Hemisphere". This has been literally copied from a source but still strikes me as odd. What about the mammals that come with human civilization? Rats, mice, domestic animals?

I specifically ref'ed that point in the lead as I thought it might come up. Rattus does come to mind, but note that's a genus with dozens of species. I'd guess that no one of them matches the total range of the Cougar (though collectively they're just about everywhere). Domesticates? Well yes, they match it. I always assume the human + pets exception is assumed for sentences of this sort. Marskell 08:05, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

The Map indicating the range could be updated to include points as far east as Iowa. There have been two pumas captured in the city limits of Omaha (the first at the busiest traffic confluence in the city), and another in Avoca Iowa (after years of local authorities treating reports like Yeti sightings). Both Iowa and Nebraska DNR officials state that wildfires in Montana as well as North and South have forced pumas to migrate along the Missouri River.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wardo10 (talk • contribs).

A sighting, even a catching,outside of the known range does not indicate that the range is wrong. The range is the usual and typical expected area that the species may be present under normal circumstances. Extraordinary circumstances, such as wildfires, can cause a species to temporarily change its range, but only after a significant time has elapsed without the range collapsing back to its previous boundaries can we say the range has expanded. - UtherSRG (talk) 19:25, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

"Viable population" are the two magic words. Marskell 19:28, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Attacks on humans

The article is contradictory on the references here. Or perhaps the sentence got mis-edited, the references say you should not try to stare into a cougars eyes, (you shouldn't do it to a male gorilla either). I think that makes more sense because it lives solitairy. That is why i think it got mis-edited and originally said 'don't stare into it's eyes because it agregates its agression, but i am not sure. At least when you stare into a big territorial predators eyes you should also talk i think, so the animal may aprehend you are awkwardly attempting to communicate (i think most animals would understand when u stared into their eyes pointing a gun at them these days).77.248.56.242 10:46, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi anon. Which reference says don't stare into its eyes? All that I've read says be aggressive without being jumpy, always face the animal, fight if need be etc. We can replace "intense eye contact" if those words aren't used, with "face it directly." As for solitary animals being more attuned to eye contact, perhaps. Solitary animals are generally much more wary, as they have the most to lose from injury. The relative size of the animal and whether it is apex would have the most to do with its interpreting aggression, at a guess. The safety tips for Black Bears are nearly identical to the Cougar, for instance, but the Brown Bear is a different story. Marskell 11:33, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

This is perhaps the best safety tip I've ever read: "Some experts advise that you play dead if the bear is a grizzly and to fight back if it is a black bear. Others say play dead until the bear is obviously feeding on you, then fight back."[2] Ha! That's just superb. Marskell 11:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

"Stalk-and-ambush"?

An ambush involves lying in wait, whereas stalking involves active pursuit, so this phrase seems self-contradictory. How about "stealthy" instead?--BillFlis 11:59, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Hm, well, it stalks and then waits at the appropriate spot. Here's a random grab. Not a lot, but I don't think it an inappropriate phrase. Marskell 12:18, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, those all seem to be scholarly articles, so I accept that the phrase is not inappropriate, at least in those circles, but how about some clarification of the jargon for a poor confused layman such as myself? At least one of those articles had "stealthy" in the same sentence as that phrase.--BillFlis 11:49, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Attacks on humans - urbanization

The section Attacks on humans starts with: "Due to the growth of urban areas, Cougar ranges increasingly overlap with areas inhabited by humans, especially in areas with large populations of deer."

No reference is provided for this statement, and I find it implausible that it is true, because:

• Urban areas do not have large populations of deer.
• Cougars do not live in urban areas. If an area becomes urban (the urban areas grow), it is now inhabited by humans, rather than being an overlapping area.
• Urbanization (growth of the percentage of people living in a city, instead of outside a city) might even have a reverse effect, because it means less people live in rural areas. In those areas, cougars and humans do inhabit the same space.

Without doubt the expansion of land used by humans is the cause of the increased overlap in habitat, but attributing this to urban areas seems wrong.

--User:Krator (t c) 14:15, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

from the footnote that follows it:

"” Because of increasing cougar populations and increasing human activities encroaching on cougar territory, more frequent sightings and cougar-human interactions have been reported. Other reasons for more frequent sightings may include decreasing deer and wild sheep populations. From 1986 until 1995, 10 verified attacks by cougars..." (McKee)

generally a footnote is meant to source everything that precedes it. Jon513 18:08, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

I actually removed the clause about the deer as it can be misinterpreted. It had been in the article since before I started working on it. If the exact word "urban" bothers, we can change it, but I think it clear that human settlement into cougar territories is at issue. Other sources can no doubt be found. Marskell 18:24, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Urban areas do not have large populations of deer.

What makes you think so? I live in Austin, Texas, which is certainly urban (even if it isn't that big). Here, as far as I remember, it is practically impossible to go for a morning walk without coming across a herd of deer. Everyone in my neighborhood has a fence around at least part of their gardens, lest the deer come and eat up, or trample on, the plants.

Cougars do not live in urban areas. If an area becomes urban (the urban areas grow), it is now inhabited by humans, rather than being an overlapping area.

This is like saying that if India becomes part of the British Empire, it is now inhabited (solely) by Englishmen. Of course not. No animal (humans included) will move out of their original habitat unless they are forced to do so. There are cities in which it is illegal to kill the local wildlife, so the animals stay on.

I remember cougars being sighted here a year or two ago (obviously attracted by the deer). In other areas (though maybe not here), there is indeed such a thing as an "urban cougar."

Urbanization...might even have a reverse effect

You mean urbanization would make cougar ranges shrink? Not necessarily - only if "urbanization" meant going off on cougar-hunting sprees. Cougars don't know the difference between city and country. They only know that there are tons of deer just waiting to be eaten in a nearby forest, and that forest could be in the city or in the country. And possibly that it's illegal to kill them. --Kuaichik 19:10, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Kim Bauer

I am surprised to find no reference to the infamous Kim Bauer-cougar face off in Season 2 of 24 in the mythology and popular culture section. Come on! 210.210.78.151 11:31, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Range of Puma vs. Grey Wolf

Do any of the sources used to discuss the range of the Puma explicitly state that it has exceeded that of the Grey Wolf? Maybe a comment on when/why? I suppose they don't necessarily need to, but the current range on the Grey Wolf page looks pretty large, covering all of Canada (10m sqr km) and a significant chunk of Eurasia (which is 54m sqr km). There's no definitive note on the range of the grey wolf either way, but I would like to suggest that the article notes that the Puma's range now exceeds that of the wolf, if it's true. Kayman1uk 12:26, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Panther

I am placed the name panther in the first sentence a number of times only to see it removed without discussion. The name of this cat throughout a large percentage of its range was "Panther" This area encompassed the entire southeastern united states. Photos of panthers killed in Tennessee read "Local panther shot by...." The Carolina Panthers are an example of this use in the Carolinas. In much of Texas and all of Florida this is the only name for these cats. It is used more widely than Puma in the English language and should be in the opening paragraph.

I was under the impression that the cougar is a type of panther. --Kuaichik 02:15, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Panther is almost always used with a location compound, and in scientific papers the term is mainly used for the Florida population. (Compare: one and two). Panther by itself is rarely used, and I seriously doubt it is more widely employed than Puma in English to refer to the species in general. Marskell 07:34, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Marskell, I am willing to bet that you live in the Western US. In the Southeast this cat is called a Panther.

Move to Puma

Puma is now the accepted genus name and is also the correct general name for this animal. Cougar is a regional name, as is panther, catamount etc. We should move this to puma and redirect cougar.--Counsel 23:45, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

see [3] for support of this.--Counsel 23:50, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Here is a source with no US or American regional bias (BBC) [4]. Because puma is already used to redirect here, we need an administrator to make the move.--Counsel 23:52, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't see how that supports it at all just because they chose "puma" for their page instead of "cougar". I'm from the East Coast and now live in California. Back east the animal was known almost exclusively as "cougar", in California I hear both equally with "mountain lion". The dictionary identifies only mountain lion as a regionalism[5] and gives priority to "cougar" both as an English word (loaned from French)[6][7] and as the primary meaning since all the synonyms point back to cougar and not puma. Yes, I know the genus name is "Puma", but we're writing in English, not Spanish or Latin. TCC (talk) (contribs) 00:00, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

oppose. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed. 2005), the canonical listing of mammal species and name, lists Cougar as the common name for Puma concolor. - UtherSRG (talk) 00:07, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I am from FL originally, I have lived in Tenn., OK, VA, NC, Mass., and CA, each for more than one year and I now live in Washington State. There are many regional names for this cat. In the Southeast, this cat is not called a cougar at all. There are no Carolina Cougars or Tennessee Cougars. Puma, however, is the general, scientifically accepted name for this animal. The vast majority of the scientific writing on this animal supports that view, especially since the genus change. We should make this article current and reflect that reality.--Counsel 00:08, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

The World Conservation Union calls them Pumas as well[8]. We should remember that Wikipedia is an international resource.--Counsel 00:20, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

If you go to the Journal of Zoology [9] and search cougar you will find 42 hits, and most of these use Puma in the Title. If you search "Puma" you get 259 hits. This is the more common name. There should be better reasons that just liking the name cougar better. We should try to make this as scientifically accurate as possible.--Counsel 00:38, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Question - how many of the hits for Puma are actually also hits for cougar? For example a title The Life History of the Cougar, Puma concolor in British Columbia would generate hits for both. Sabine's Sunbird talk 00:59, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

No matter were you are, or what language you speak Puma concolor' is the name of this animal. That is where the page should be. As far as what to call it in the article, Puma is short for Puma concolor. -Ravedave 01:42, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

What? No, "Puma" is a very old word and isn't short for anything. The genus name was borrowed from it rather than the other way around.

But according to the way zoological articles are usually organized, an article named "Puma" should be about the genus rather than P. concolor. The species article would then have to be named either along the lines of "Puma (common)" or by a different common name. Such as -- just to pick an example out of the air -- "Cougar".

Besides, the usual practice is to give the species articles a common name rather than a scientific one. That "Puma" is the name of the genus doesn't speak to the title here at all -- or should Common Raccoon be named "Procyon"? (In that case, even the genus article is called by the common name Raccoon. Procyon is an astronomical article.) TCC (talk) (contribs) 01:55, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Fighting over which of the Seven common names it has is a waste of time. Puma is a bad name for the article because then it conflicts with the genus as stated. Someone is always going to be unhappy with the name, but with Puma concolor at least it is scientifically right. -Ravedave 02:52, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Oppose for all of the above reasons. "Cougar" and "Puma" are both in use. Go to the abstracts in the references—two-to-one they use "Cougar." And it has the advantage of being distinct from the genus name. Marskell 03:54, 23 June 2007 (UTC)