Cougars
The puma, cougar, and the mountain lion go by the scientific name, Felis concolor, meaning "cat of one color." Their habitat extends from Canada to the tip of Brazil. The cougar mostly stays on the mountains, but they have been sited in forests and meadows. The only predator of the cougar is mankind.
The female can give birth to 1 to 6 kittens in one breeding season. After the female has given birth to her kittens, the male will leave the female's territory.
The cougar's vision is binocular and the cat can see a 130 degree field of vision. The cougar's paw print has 4 toes and the center of the paw.
The cougar is a meat-eating predator. The cougar has a large veriety of prey including skunk, bighorn sheep, pika, and many other animals. They mostly eat mammals and what is in their habitat. It is easy to track a cougar during its breeding season or when it feels threatened.
When early explorers came to America, they thought that the cougar was a female lion. That's where the term mountain lion comes from. Then the explorers realized their mistake and renamed it cougar. In Spanish, the cougar is called the puma.
Th closest relative to the cougar. is the lynx. Then comes the tiger, jaguar, and leopard. The cougar is one of the largest native North American cats.
The size of the cougar depends on their sex and their habitat. The males weigh in at about 110 to 180 pounds. The female can get up to 130 lbs. The largest cougar was about 200 pounds. The male's length can get up to 6 to 8 feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. Cougars can live in captivity for about 21 or more years. In the wild, cougars live about 10 - 12 years.
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