Cougar

Sizes Length: 59 – 108 inches, tail length of 21 – 36 inches Weight: between 75 and 250 pounds (varies greatly) Height: 23 – 28 inches at the shoulder Lifestyle Habit: solitary and will avoid other individuals except for during mating Diet: preferr deer, but they will also eat Coyotes, Porcupines, Beaver, mice marmots, hares, raccoons, birds and even grasshoppers Lifespan: in captivity - 20 years, in the wild - 8 - 10 years

Breeding Sexual Maturity: Females - 2.5, males - around 3 years Mating Season: no fixed mating season, but in North America, the majority of births occur between late winter and early spring Litter: 1 – 6 (usually 2-3) kittens Gestation: 90-96 days

The Cougar has many other names including Puma, Panther, Mountain Lion, and Catamount. The Cougar has the greatest natural distribution of any mammal in the Western Hemisphere except for man. The Cougar is extremely agile and has great jumping power and may leap from the ground up to a height of 18 feet into a tree. It is a good swimmer but prefers not to enter the water. Sight is the Cougar's most acute sense. They also have a good sense of hearing, but it is thought to have a poorly developed sense of smell.

The cougar thrives in montains, coniferous forests, lowland tropical forests, swamps, grassland, dry brush country, or any other area with adequate cover and prey. The Cougar lives in Western North America from British Columbia and south Alberta south through west Wyoming to California and west Texas. Also south Texas, Louisiana, south Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. Mothers give birth to their young in dens that are lined with moss or vegetation, usually in rock shelters, crevices, piles of rocks, thickets, caves, or some other protected place. Their vocalizations include growls, hisses, and bird-like whistles. They purr like the domestic cats, and during estrus, the females give off loud, hair-raising screams. Cougars kill by stalking to within 30 feet of their prey before pouncing from its hiding place.

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