Protection Status Protection Status: CITES Appendix II; eastern and Central American subspecies (F.c.coryi, costaricensis and cougar) Appendix I National Legislation: Protected over much of its range Hunting Prohibited: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, Uruguay Hunting Regulated: Canada, Mexico, Peru, United States No Legal Protection: Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana (Fuller et al. 1987, R. Hoogesteijn in litt. 1993) There is good information available about the protection status of the puma on a regional level in North America. The eastern cougar is protected in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario (Macey 1979). Elsewhere in Canada, pumas are protected in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Yukon, but not at all in the North-West Territories. Hunting is regulated in Alberta and British Columbia. In the US, the eastern cougar is fully protected under the Endangered Species Act. In the west, pumas are fully protected only in South Dakota and California. Hunting is regulated in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Pumas are not legally protected in Texas (Tischendorf 1991). In California, which holds one of North America’s largest puma populations, voters in 1990 narrowly approved an initiative which directed the state to prohibit sport hunting of pumas (formerly permitted), and to allocate US$30 million a year for the next 30 years toward provision of habitat for pumas and other threatened species (West 1991).

© 1996 IUCN - The World Conservation Union