60 Fun Facts About Cougar

What is the cougar's scientific name?

Linnaeus first called it Felis concolor in 1771; William Jardine moved it to the genus Puma in 1834.

The cougar holds a Guinness record for having more of what than any other animal?

It has over 40 names in English alone, including puma, mountain lion, catamount, panther and painter.

The word 'cougar' ultimately comes from which language?

It reached English via Portuguese 'çuçuarana' and French; Buffon shortened it to 'cuguar' in 1774.

The name 'puma' entered English in 1777 via Spanish from which language?

Puma is the name used in most of Latin America and Europe and in the scientific literature.

Which name for the cougar is most commonly used in the United States?

Canadians say cougar; 'mountain lion' first appeared in print in 1858.

What is 'catamount' short for?

It has been used in English for the cougar and other wild cats since at least 1664.

In the southern United States, the cougar is sometimes called what, a corruption of 'panther'?

Panther itself is used interchangeably with cougar, puma and mountain lion.

Which two cats are the cougar's closest relatives?

Some studies suggest the cheetah lineage split from the puma line in the Americas and migrated back to the Old World.

How many cougar subspecies does the Cat Classification Taskforce recognise as valid as of 2017?

P. c. concolor in South America and P. c. couguar in North and Central America; 32 had been proposed by the 1980s.

Cougars are what rank in size among the world's cat species?

Only the tiger, lion and jaguar are bigger; males run 53-72 kg and the 1901 record was 105 kg.

Where in its range are cougars smallest?

They grow larger towards the poles; jaguars, oddly, do the reverse across the Amazon.

What colour are cougar kittens' eyes at birth?

Kittens are also spotted, with ringed tails; adults are plain tawny.

How high can a cougar leap from the ground into a tree?

It has proportionally the largest hind legs of any cat.

The cougar is the largest cat able to do what?

It is a member of the Felinae, not the roaring Panthera, so despite the name it is no true lion.

The cougar's range spans how many degrees of latitude, from the Yukon to southern Chile?

That makes it the most widely distributed wild land mammal in the Western Hemisphere.

Up to what elevation have cougars been recorded?

They live in every forest type, deserts and open country.

As a keystone species, the cougar interacts with roughly how many other species?

As predator, prey, carcass provider and competitor, it links many trophic levels.

A survey of North American research found what share of cougar prey items were ungulates?

In Alberta winters that rises to over 99%; in South America it drops to about 35%.

Which unusual prey makes up most of the cougar's diet in two Patagonian national parks?

Florida panthers, meanwhile, often prefer feral hogs and armadillos.

One New Mexico cougar was recorded killing 29 of which introduced African antelope?

They made up 58% of its recorded kills; cougars also take feral horses and donkeys in the Southwest.

How does a cougar typically kill large prey?

It then drags the kill to a hidden spot, covers it with brush and returns for days.

Roughly how often does a cougar kill a large ungulate?

A mother with nearly grown cubs may kill every three days.

A cougar's winter hunting success rate on elk and mule deer in central Idaho was estimated at what?

In central Argentina, hunting viscachas in scrub, the figure was just 10%.

Which Yellowstone predator most often drives cougars off their kills?

Bears visited 24% of cougar kills in Yellowstone and Glacier and stole 10% of carcasses.

How do one-on-one confrontations between a cougar and a wolf usually go?

A pack is another matter: seven to eleven wolves have killed a female cougar and her kittens.

Where cougars overlap with jaguars, what happens to cougar prey and size?

The jaguar takes the larger prey, and cougars exploit a broader, smaller-prey niche.

Which mid-sized predator has been documented trying to prey on cougar cubs?

Adult cougars readily kill coyotes, bobcats, lynx and wolverines, suppressing their numbers.

How long is a cougar's gestation?

Litters are one to six cubs, typically two, born blind in caves or alcoves.

What happens to a cougar's juveniles when she comes into heat again?

Juveniles usually stay with their mother for one to two years; males then disperse farthest.

How long do wild cougars usually live?

Captives can reach 20; an 18-year-old female was killed by hunters on Vancouver Island.

How do mother cougars and their kittens keep in contact?

Aggressive sounds are growls, spits, snarls and hisses; females in heat caterwaul to attract mates.

How do male cougars mark their territory?

Male ranges overlap females' but, where studied, not other males'.

How does the IUCN classify the cougar?

It has held that status since 2008 despite being wiped out across most of eastern North America.

The Florida panther, the only cougar population left in the eastern US, numbers roughly how many as of 2024?

It occupies just 5% of its historic range and is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

In which year did the US Fish and Wildlife Service declare the eastern cougar extinct?

The agency concluded it had actually been gone since the 1930s.

P-22, the celebrity big cat of Los Angeles, lived for a decade in which park?

He was radio-collared from 2012 and euthanised in December 2022 after being hit by a car.

P-22's most famous photograph, published in National Geographic, showed him in front of what?

His fame helped fund the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over a freeway.

Between 1890 and 1990, how many confirmed cougar attacks on humans were reported in North America?

They caused 10 deaths; by 2004 the totals had risen to 88 attacks and 20 deaths.

Research on attacks before 1991 found what share of victims were children?

Almost all fatalities were children; British Columbia, especially Vancouver Island, had the most attacks.

What should you NOT do if a cougar confronts you?

Fleeing triggers the chase instinct and standing still or playing dead marks you as easy prey.

A 2013 study found the best predictor of cougar problems in an area was what?

Each cougar killed raised complaints by 50%: older cats that avoid people get replaced by bolder young males.

Which Argentine scientist was mauled by a puma near Lake Viedma in 1877 and later showed Theodore Roosevelt his scars?

He was wearing a guanaco-hide poncho, and guanaco is the puma's chief prey in Patagonia.

Which Inca city is reported to have been laid out in the shape of a cougar?

The Inca sky god Viracocha was associated with the cat and the Moche painted it on ceramics.

To the Apache and Walapai, the wail of the cougar was a sign of what?

The Cherokee held it sacred; the Algonquins and Ojibwe placed it, wicked, in the underworld.

Which Native American people regarded the cougar as a sacred animal?

Others saw it as wicked or as an omen of death.

How many claws does a cougar have on each forepaw?

The hind paws have four; the larger front feet and claws are for clutching prey.

By one theory, why did North American cougars survive the Ice Age extinctions that took Smilodon?

Another view is that they died out and North America was later repopulated by South American cougars.

A 17,000-year-old cougar coprolite from Argentina contained the eggs of which parasite?

It shows the cat and its roundworm have coexisted in South America since the Late Pleistocene.

Which state protects the cougar under a 1990 Wildlife Protection Act that bans hunting it?

Elsewhere in the western US, hunting is legal; Florida panthers are protected federally.

A cougar's home range can be as large as roughly how many square kilometres?

The lower limit for males is about 25 km2; density runs from half an animal to seven per 100 km2.

William Henry Hudson claimed pumas of the Southern Cone were inhibited from doing what?

In local legend they even defended people against jaguars.

Who proposed the scientific name Felis concolor in 1771 for a long-tailed cat from Brazil?

William Jardine moved the species into the genus Puma in 1834.

In which year did William Jardine place the species in the genus Puma?

The genus Puma sits within the Felinae, the small-cat subfamily, rather than with the roaring Panthera cats.

In which year was the term 'mountain lion' first seen in writing?

Despite the name, the animal is not a true lion of the genus Panthera and cannot roar.

How much did the largest cougar on record, shot in 1901, weigh?

Claims of 125 kg and 118 kg animals have been made but were probably exaggerated; typical males weigh 53 to 72 kg.

Roughly how much of an adult male cougar's 2.4-metre length is tail?

Adults stand 60 to 90 cm at the shoulder, and females average about 2.05 m from nose to tail tip.

By one theory, the continent's original cougars died out 10,000 years ago and were replaced from where?

Genetic work by Culver and colleagues suggests all living cougars descend from a small, fairly recent ancestral group.

In California, black bears were found to visit what share of cougar kills?

The figure was 48% in Colorado; cougars generally give way to bears at carcasses and eat faster when bears are active.

How does CITES list the cougar's Central American population?

The species overall sits on Appendix II, and hunting is banned in Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, Chile and many other countries.

Cougar-human conflict is generally lower more than how far from a settlement?

Distance from roads matters too, with conflict falling beyond about 16 km from a road.