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Puma concolorcougar(Also: mountain lion; puma)

By Tanya Dewey and Anupama Shivaraju

Ge­o­graphic Range

His­tor­i­cally, moun­tain lions had the most ex­ten­sive dis­tri­b­u­tion of all Amer­i­can ter­res­trial mam­mals. They ranged from coast to coast in North Amer­ica, and from south­ern Ar­gentina and Chile to south­east­ern Alaska. Ex­ter­mi­na­tion ef­forts, hunt­ing pres­sure, and habi­tat de­struc­tion have re­stricted their range to rel­a­tively moun­tain­ous, un­pop­u­lated areas through­out much of their range. Pop­u­la­tions in east­ern North Amer­ica were en­tirely ex­ter­mi­nated, ex­cept for a small pop­u­la­tion of Florida pan­thers (Puma con­color coryi). In re­cent years pop­u­la­tions have begun to ex­pand into areas of human habi­ta­tion, es­pe­cially in the west­ern United States. Moun­tain lions are now fairly com­mon in sub­ur­ban areas of Cal­i­for­nia and have re­cently been sighted as far east as urban Kansas City, Mis­souri, where sev­eral have been hit by cars. Moun­tain lion sight­ings in east­ern North Amer­ica, out­side of south­ern Florida, are still more likely to be es­caped or aban­doned "pet" moun­tain lions or other large cats.

Habi­tat

Moun­tain lions use a wide va­ri­ety of habi­tats in­clud­ing mon­tane conif­er­ous forests, low­land trop­i­cal forests, grass­land, dry brush coun­try, swamps, and any areas with ad­e­quate cover and prey. Dense veg­e­ta­tion, caves, and rocky crevices pro­vide shel­ter.

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Moun­tain lions are large, slen­der cats. The pelage has a short and coarse tex­ture. The gen­eral col­oration ranges from a yel­low­ish brown to gray­ish brown on the upper parts and a paler, al­most buffy, color on the belly. The throat and chest are whitish. Moun­tain lions have a pink­ish nose with a black bor­der that ex­tends to the lips. The muz­zle stripes, the area be­hind ears, and the tip of tail are black. The eyes of ma­ture an­i­mals are gray­ish brown to golden. The tail is long, cylin­dri­cal, and about one-third of the an­i­mal's total length. The limbs are short and mus­cu­lar. The feet are broad, with four dig­its on hind feet and five on forefeet. The pollex is small and set above the other dig­its. The re­trac­tile claws are sharp and curved. The skull is no­tice­ably broad and short. The fore­head re­gion is high and arched. The ros­trum and the nasal bones are broad. The den­tal for­mula is 3/3 1/1 3/2 1/1. The mandible is short, deep, and pow­er­fully con­structed. The car­nas­sial teeth are mas­sive and long. The ca­nines are heavy and com­pressed. The in­cisors are small and straight. Moun­tain lions have one more small pre­mo­lar on each side of the upper jaw than do bob­cats and lynx.

Males are larger than fe­males. Head and body length ranges from 1020 to 1540 mm in males and 860 to 1310 mm in fe­males. Tail length ranges from 680 to 960 mm in males and 630 to 790 mm in fe­males. Males weigh from 36 to 120 kg and fe­males from 29 to 64 kg.

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • Range mass
    29 to 120 kg
    63.88 to 264.32 lb
  • Range length
    860 to 1540 mm
    33.86 to 60.63 in
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    49.326 W
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Males main­tain ter­ri­to­ries that over­lap with those of sev­eral fe­males. They at­tempt to dom­i­nate mat­ings with those fe­males.

A moun­tain lion in the wild will not mate until it has es­tab­lished a home ter­ri­tory. When the fe­male is in es­trous, she vo­cal­izes freely and fre­quently rubs against nearby ob­jects. The male re­sponds with sim­i­lar yowls and sniffs the fe­male's gen­i­tal area. The high­est fre­quency of cop­u­la­tion was nine times in one hour. A sin­gle cop­u­la­tory act lasts less than one minute. There is a 67% chance of con­cep­tion per mated es­trous

Courtship and mat­ing oc­curs through­out the year, but is con­cen­trated from De­cem­ber to March in north­ern lat­i­tudes. Ges­ta­tion pe­ri­ods last from 82 to 96 days. A fe­male moun­tain lion can come into es­trus any time of the year. Es­trus lasts about nine days. Fe­males usu­ally give birth every other year. After six cy­cles with­out mat­ing, the fe­male has a lull for two months be­fore com­ing into es­trous again. Males re­main re­pro­duc­tively ac­tive to at least an age of 20 years, and fe­males to at least an age of 12 years. Lit­ters vary in size from 1 to 6 cubs with an av­er­age of 3 or 4. Birth weight is be­tween 226 to 453 grams. The cubs open their eyes 10 days after birth. At the same time their ear pin­nae un­folds, their first teeth erupt, and they begin play. The cubs are fully weaned at about 40 days of age. Mother and cubs re­main to­gether for as long as 26 months, though the av­er­age is 15 months. Male young dis­perse from 23 to 274 km, while fe­males dis­perse from 9 to 140 km. Males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at about 3 years of age and fe­males at 2 1/2 years.

  • Breeding interval
    Individual female mountain lions usually give birth every two years.
  • Breeding season
    Mating throughout the year, in northern parts of their range mating is more concentrated from December to March.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 6
  • Average number of offspring
    2.9
  • Average number of offspring
    2.5
    AnAge
  • Range gestation period
    84 to 106 days
  • Average gestation period
    92.3 days
  • Range weaning age
    28 (low) days
  • Average weaning age
    40 days
  • Range time to independence
    12 (high) months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    2.5 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    912 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    3 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    912 days
    AnAge

Mother moun­tain lions care for and nurse their young until they are about a year old. The young are born help­less and are pro­tected by the mother in a shel­tered area until they are big enough to roam and begin to learn and prac­tice hunt­ing skills.

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Moun­tain lions may live up to 18 to 20 years in the wild. They can live slightly longer in cap­tiv­ity.

Be­hav­ior

Moun­tain lions are soli­tary an­i­mals, with the ex­cep­tion of 1 to 6 days of as­so­ci­a­tions dur­ing mat­ing and pe­ri­ods of ju­ve­nile de­pen­dence. Pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties vary from as low as one in­di­vid­ual per 85 square kilo­me­ters to as high as one per 13 to 54 square kilo­me­ters, de­pend­ing on the den­sity of prey and other re­sources in the area. Fe­males with de­pen­dent cubs live within the wide space used by the res­i­dent male. Moun­tain lions mark their ter­ri­to­ries by de­posit­ing urine or fecal ma­te­ri­als by trees marked with scrapes. Moun­tain lions are pri­mar­ily noc­tur­nal. Males are found to­gether im­me­di­ately after leav­ing their mother, but rarely as es­tab­lished adults. Moun­tain lions have sum­mer and win­ter home ranges in some areas, re­quir­ing a mi­gra­tion be­tween ranges.

Home Range

Home ranges of fe­males range from 26 to 350 square kilo­me­ters, with an av­er­age of 140 square kilo­me­ters. Fe­male home ranges may over­lap ex­ten­sively. Male home ranges do not over­lap with those of other males and typ­i­cally en­com­pass the home ranges of two fe­males. They range in size from 140 to 760 square kilo­me­ters, with an av­er­age of 280 square kilo­me­ters.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Moun­tain lions rely mainly on vi­sion, smell, and hear­ing. They use low-pitched hisses, growls, purrs, yowls, and screams in dif­fer­ent cir­cum­stances. Loud, chirp­ing whis­tles by young serves to call the mother. Touch is im­por­tant in so­cial bond­ing be­tween mother and young. Scent mark­ing is im­por­tant in ad­ver­tis­ing ter­ri­tory bound­aries and re­pro­duc­tive state.

Food Habits

Moun­tain lions are car­ni­vores. Their main prey through­out their range are dif­fer­ent species of un­gu­lates, in­clud­ing moose, elk, white-tailed deer, mule deer, and cari­bou in North Amer­ica. They will also eat smaller crea­tures like squir­rels, muskrat, por­cu­pine, beaver, rac­coon, striped skunk, coy­ote, bob­cats, other moun­tain lions, rab­bits, opos­sums, birds, and even snails and fish. They may also prey on do­mes­tic live­stock, in­clud­ing poul­try, calves, sheep, goats, and pigs. Moun­tain lions have a dis­tinc­tive man­ner of hunt­ing larger prey. The lion qui­etly stalks the prey an­i­mals, then leaps at close range onto their back and breaks the an­i­mal's neck with a pow­er­ful bite below the base of the skull. Yearly food con­sump­tion is be­tween 860 to 1,300 kg of large prey an­i­mals, about 48 un­gu­lates per lion per year. Moun­tain lions cache large prey, drag­ging it up to 350 me­ters from the place of cap­ture and bury­ing it under leaves and de­bris. They re­turn nightly to feed.

  • Primary Diet
  • carnivore
    • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • Animal Foods
  • birds
  • mammals
  • fish
  • mollusks

Pre­da­tion

Moun­tain lions are top preda­tors. They may be preyed on by other moun­tain lions, wolves, or bear when they are young or ill.

  • Known Predators

Ecosys­tem Roles

Moun­tain lions are im­por­tant as top preda­tors in the ecosys­tems in which they live. They are in­stru­men­tal in con­trol­ling pop­u­la­tions of large un­gu­lates.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Moun­tain lions have con­sid­er­able tro­phy value and are hunted for sport. They are also cap­tured to be put in zoos. Moun­tain lions are im­por­tant to hu­mans in their role as top preda­tors, help­ing to con­trol pop­u­la­tions of un­gu­lates.

  • Positive Impacts
  • body parts are source of valuable material
  • research and education
  • controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Al­though moun­tain lions are se­cre­tive and gen­er­ally avoid hu­mans, they some­times at­tack hu­mans. At­tacks are usu­ally on small adults and chil­dren trav­el­ing alone dur­ing dawn, dusk, or at night. It is thought that moun­tain lions mis­take these hu­mans for their un­gu­late prey. Moun­tain lions are also con­sid­ered threats to do­mes­tic stock. These threats are some­times ex­ag­ger­ated. It is help­ful to learn more about moun­tain lion be­hav­ior in order to avoid en­coun­ters.

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans
    • bites or stings

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Some sub­species are listed in CITES Ap­pen­dix I; all oth­ers are Ap­pen­dix II. Some pop­u­la­tions are listed as En­dan­gered under the En­dan­gered Species Act. Two pop­u­la­tions listed as en­dan­gered under the En­dan­gered Species Act are con­sid­ered ex­tinct (Puma con­color schorg­eri and Puma con­color couguar). Puma con­color coryi, Florida pan­thers, and Puma con­color costari­cen­sis are con­sid­ered en­dan­gered and ex­tant.

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (au­thor, ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Anu­pama Shiv­araju (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chaparral

Found in coastal areas between 30 and 40 degrees latitude, in areas with a Mediterranean climate. Vegetation is dominated by stands of dense, spiny shrubs with tough (hard or waxy) evergreen leaves. May be maintained by periodic fire. In South America it includes the scrub ecotone between forest and paramo.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

desert or dunes

in deserts low (less than 30 cm per year) and unpredictable rainfall results in landscapes dominated by plants and animals adapted to aridity. Vegetation is typically sparse, though spectacular blooms may occur following rain. Deserts can be cold or warm and daily temperates typically fluctuate. In dune areas vegetation is also sparse and conditions are dry. This is because sand does not hold water well so little is available to plants. In dunes near seas and oceans this is compounded by the influence of salt in the air and soil. Salt limits the ability of plants to take up water through their roots.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

internal fertilization

fertilization takes place within the female's body

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

riparian

Referring to something living or located adjacent to a waterbody (usually, but not always, a river or stream).

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

stores or caches food

places a food item in a special place to be eaten later. Also called "hoarding"

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

Baker, R.H. 1983. Michi­gan Mam­mals. Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity Press, Michi­gan, pg 536-543.

Cur­rier, M.J.P. 1983. Mam­malian Species. The Amer­i­can so­ci­ety of Mam­mal­o­gists, Michi­gan, pg 1-7 (200).

Nowak, R.M., Par­adiso, J.L. 1983. Walker's Mam­mals of the World. The Johns Hop­kins

Kurta, A. 1995. Mam­mals of the Great Lakes Re­gion. Ann Arbor, Michi­gan: The Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Press.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Carnivora carnivores
  • Family Felidae cats
  • Genus Puma puma and jaguarundi
  • Species Puma concolor cougar

Related Taxa