ASB puza

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003, Alan H. Hartley wrote:
>  > Tigers?  Would this be jaguars or ocelots?
>  > JEK
>
> In Amer. use, usually 'cougar', ...

OK. I asked because the source you cited opposed tigers to cat-a-mounts,
which I usually take to be Felis concolor, which, incidentally, in
Colorado is almost invariably called a mountain lion.

> "we find numbers of wolves, some tigers, Cat-a-mounts, (Pichous) ..."

Returning to an issue Heike raised, Kurten and Anderson (op.  cit., p.
194) report "D. B. Adams (personal communication, 1979) has suggested that
the puma and Acinonyx [cheetas] have a common origin, and Acinonyx studeri
does have a number of pumalike characters (Savage, 1960)." Oddly enough,
several species (or evolutionary stages?) of Acynonyx have been identified
in Pleistocene North America (K & A, pp. 192-194).  And, for that matter,
also "lions," or at least members of the Panthera extreme of Felis.
Pleistocene North America seems to have been a very different sort of
place.

JEK