Q 01/05

What is the cougar's scientific name?

A) Panthera concolor

B) Puma concolor

C) Felis catamount

D) Lynx rufus

Answer · why

B) Puma concolor

Puma concolor. The species name means 'of one colour', for the plain brown coat that covers the adult's back, sides, limbs and tail.

Q 02/05

How do adult cougars usually live?

A) In mated pairs

B) Alone

C) In female-led prides

D) In small male coalitions

Answer · why

B) Alone

Alone. Their home ranges overlap, though, and adults will put up with one another at a kill and share the meat, a favour that tends to be returned.

Q 03/05

The word 'cougar' most likely goes back to which South American language?

A) Quechua

B) Mapuche

C) Tupi

D) Arawak

Answer · why

C) Tupi

Tupi. That is the likeliest origin: the Portuguese wrote the word down as 'çuçuarana' and the French naturalist Buffon reshaped it as 'couguar', thoug...

Q 04/05

The name 'puma' reached English through Spanish from which language of the Inca Empire?

A) Quechua

B) Mapuche

C) Guaraní

D) Aymara

Answer · why

A) Quechua

Quechua. English took the Incas' word from Spanish in 1777, three years after 'cougar' had arrived by way of French, which is how one cat came by a pa...

Q 05/05

Which name for the cougar is in common use across the United States?

A) Puma

B) Florida panther

C) Catamount

D) Mountain lion

Answer · why

D) Mountain lion

Mountain lion. The American coinage misleads twice over: the cat is no true lion, and it is as much at home in swamps and deserts as on mountains.