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SCIENTIFIC NAME: Puma (Felis) concolor
RANGE: Cougars range from northwestern Canada to Patagonia, South America. Other than humans, cougars are the most widely distributed land mammal in the Western Hemisphere.
CHARACTERISTICS AND BEHAVIOR: Cougars are also known as pumas, panthers and mountain lions. Among Western Hemisphere cats, only the jaguar is larger
than the cougar. Some cougars can weigh over 300 pounds.
From a sitting position, cougars have been observed springing
upward 18 feet (5.5 m) onto a tree branch. They can leap
horizontally 40 feet (12.1 m). After a cougar has eaten
its fill, it will bury the remains of the kill and save
it for a later date. Cougars cannot roar. Their most familiar
vocalization sounds much like a human scream.
HABITAT: Cougars inhabit a wide variety of places: steep,
rocky canyons, tropical rain forests, prairies, deserts, coniferous
forests and swamps. They can be found living at sea level and
at the top of the South American Andes.
FAVORED PREY: Both large and small mammals. A cougar’s
diet ranges from hoofed animals like deer to raccoon, rodents
like rabbits, birds and invertebrates. Cougars are ambush predators
that typically stalk their prey before leaping to attack. They
will save leftovers from a large kill and feed from it over
a period of days.
PRINCIPAL THREATS: Habitat loss and fragmentation coupled with hunting by humans have historically led to eradication of cougars and continue to threaten populations today. The cougar's only predators are humans and wolves. Re-introduction of wolves in places such as West Yellowstone National Park has an as-yet-unknown effect on cougar populations.
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On average, a cougar consumes
about one large ungulate, such as a deer, every 2 weeks.
Females will consume prey more frequently when they are
raising cubs. In your field notebook, calculate how many
deer a male cougar would consume in its lifetime. The
average lifespan of a cougar in the wild is approximately
10 years. |
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© 2004 Wildlife Conservation Society.