 
The cougar, also known as a puma or mountain lion, is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America.It prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, but also lives in open areas. It is largely solitary by nature and mostly hunts at night, or in the twilight hours. Cougars are territorial, and live in low population densities. Individual home ranges depend on terrain, vegetation and abundance of prey. The cougar is an ambush predator that pursues a wide variety of prey. It prefers large mammals, including all varieties of deer, as well as elk, moose, mountain goat and bighorn sheep. It will also take any smaller prey that might present itself, such as rodents, smaller carnivores, birds and even domestic animals, including pets. While large, it is not always the apex predator in its range, yielding prey it has killed to American black bears, grizzly bears and wolf packs. It is reclusive and mostly avoids people. Fatal attacks on humans are rare, but have increased in North America as more people enter cougar habitat. Intensive hunting and ongoing human development into cougar habitat has caused populations to decline in most parts of its range. 
The head of the cougar is round and the ears are erect. Its powerful forequarters, neck, and jaw, as well as retractable claws on its front and back paws, help it to grasp and hold large prey. The cougar is the fourth largest cat species worldwide, after the tiger, lion, and jaguar. Adults stand anywhere from 60 to 90 cm tall at the shoulders. Adult males are around 2.4 m long from nose to tail tip, and can weigh up to 72 kg. Cougar coloring is plain. The coat is typically tawny, but can ranges from silvery-grey to reddish. Infants are spotted and born with blue eyes and rings on their tails. The cougar has large paws and large hind legs, allowing for great leaping and short-sprint ability. It is capable of leaping from the ground up to 5.5 m high into a tree. 
Although capable of sprinting, the cougar is typically an ambush predator. It stalks through brush and trees, across ledges, or other covered spots, before delivering a powerful leap onto the back of its prey and a suffocating neck bite.The cougar is capable of breaking the neck of some of its smaller prey with a strong bite and momentum bearing the animal to the ground. The cat drags a kill to a preferred spot, covers it with brush, and returns to feed over a period of days. Aside from humans, no species preys upon mature cougars in the wild, although of course conflicts with other predators or scavengers occur. The gray wolf and the cougar compete directly for prey, mostly in winter. Packs of wolves can steal cougars' kills, and there are some documented cases of cougars being killed by them. Like almost all cats, the cougar is a mostly solitary animal. Only mothers and kittens live in groups, with adults meeting rarely. While generally loners, cougars will share kills with one another and seem to organize themselves into small communities defined by the territories of dominant males. Cats within these areas socialize more frequently with each other than with outsiders. 
Cougars communicate with various vocalizations. Aggressive sounds include growls, spits, snarls and hisses. During the mating season, females produce caterwauls or yowls to attract mates and males respond with similar vocals. Mothers and offspring keep in contact with whistles, chirps and mews.
Females reach sexual maturity at the age of 18 months to three years. The gestation period for offspring is about 91 days. Litter size is between one and six cubs; typically two.
Only females are involved in parenting. Life expectancy for a cougar in the wild is reported at 8 to 13 years.
Born blind, cubs begin to be weaned at around three months. As they grow, they begin to go out on forays with their mother, visiting kill sites, and after six months beginning to hunt small prey on their own. Kitten survival rates are just over one per litter. Young cougars remain with their mothers for one to two years. When the female is ready to again become pregnant, their offspring must leave or the male will kill them. As with many predators, a cougar may attack if cornered, if a fleeing human stimulates their instinct to chase, or if a person 'plays dead'. Standing still may cause the cougar to consider a person easy prey. Exaggerating the threat to the animal through intense eye contact, loud shouting, and any other action to appear larger and more menacing, may make the animal retreat. Fighting back with sticks and rocks, or even bare hands, is often effective in persuading an attacking cougar to disengage. When cougars do attack, they usually employ their characteristic neck bite, attempting to position their teeth between the vertebrae and into the spinal cord. Neck, head, and spinal injuries are common and sometimes fatal. Children are at greatest risk of attack, and least likely to survive an encounter. |