Cats in the United States the appearance of humans in the Americas. Some prehistoric animals referred to as "saber-toothed cats" were in fact marsupials and not cats at all, but called such because of their resemblance to true felines with large canine teeth. Two main species of big cat currently inhabit the United States. One is the jaguar ("Panthera onca"), which is related to many species of big cat found on other continents and can be found in the southwestern US and as far south as northern Argentina. The other, the cougar ("Puma concolor"), which is also known as the puma or mountain lion, is
Big Cat Rescue for conservation. According to the plan, Big Cat Rescue wanted interstate transport of big cats for any reason (including conservation breeding programs) to end by 2012, display of large exotic cats in zoos to end by 2013 and keeping of any exotic cats (including smaller species) in zoos to be discontinued by 2015. In 2015, owner Carole Baskin began campaigning for the passage of a bill in the United States Congress called The Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 3546) that would ban all future keeping of all large cat species in the United States, with zoos certified by the