A cougar is from the cat family. It can also be called a puma, mountain lion, or a panther. It is also called American Lion, Deer Tiger, Mexican Lion, Painter, and Catamount.

    Cougars live along the west coast of the United States, including California and New Mexico. They also may be found in the Canadian states of British Columbia and Alberta. Their habitat is mountains, forests, lowland swamps, and grasslands.

    Cougars are carnivores. They only eat meat. They find their prey at night, from dusk to dawn. They also hunt in daytime, but not as much. Their prey can be horses, elk, deer, domestic cattle, and smaller mammals. They also eat tree and ground squirrels, rabbits, hares, muskrats, beavers, porcupines, grouse, and ptarmigans. The diet in the Brandywine Zoo is rats, horsemeat, and chicken.

    A cougar's body length is 5-6 feet, not including the tail. The tail is 2-3 feet long. The tail helps the cougar to keep its balance. Cougars weigh between 90-170 pounds. They are the second largest cat in North America. (The jaguar is the largest cat). Cougars have round and shortened heads. Their whiskers are well developed, and their eyes are large. Their colors are reddish tawny or tawny grey to dark chocolate brown. The backs of their ears and the tip of the tail are black, and there are black markings on the face.

    The average litter size is 3 cubs, but there can be between 1-5 cubs. When cubs are born they are born with their eyes closed. The kittens are spotted at birth, but the spots disappear before the end of the first year. They are 8 to 16 ounces when born. They are also about a foot long when born. Cubs stay with their mother until they are about one and a half years old or until they can survive on their own. At that time the male kittens are larger than the female mother.

    When a cougar cries it sounds terrifying. It sounds like a screaming woman. This is something you will never forget. Cougars don't like people. They wouldn't come in to your front or back yard. However, this past year people around Stanton and Newark, Delaware have reported sightings of a cougar in the area. The cougars mating call is a harsh scream.

    Cougars are an endangered species. Their life span is 10-20 years old.

    The cougar at the Brandywine Zoo is a male. The New Castle County Police and the SPCA confiscated him in 1992. He was being kept as a pet.

If you want to know more about cougars, here are some books you may try reading:
The Mammals of Canada by A.W.F. Banfield
The Ghost of North America--the story of the eastern panther by B.S. Wright
The Puma--Mysterious American Cat by S.P. Young and E.A. Goldman

For more information on the internet, visit:
http://home.midwest.net/~selsyn/puma.htm
http://nc-es.fws.gov/mammal/cougar.html
http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/canopy/7250/
http://lynx.uio.no/catfolk/puma-01.htm
                                                                                        by Shawn
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