by Shannon Lin

Created on: August 24, 2009

The cougar, in addition to its scientific name, Puma Concolor, has many others, including: puma, catamount, panther, ghost cat, and mountain lion. Cougars hold a place in the Guinness Records for animal with most names. The name Mountain Lion is explained in a folktale of how when the Native Americans traded pelts to the European settlers, they asked why all the pelts were of female "lions" (for the lack the manes). The Native Americans then said, jokingly, that the males all lived deep in the mountains, resulting in cougars being called mountain lions.

The many names of the cougar are the result of the vast range of which the cougars live. From the northern Yukon to the southern Andes in South America, different groups of people call the cougar different names. This range makes them able to live in almost every single habitat type, though it usually favors canyons, rocky areas, and places with heavy brush.

The cougar, along with two others, the lynx and the bobcat, is the largest out of the three felids native to Canada. Though these animals are not at the top of the food chain, no creature feeds on grown pumas in the wild. It competes heavily with grey wolves and bears in the north, and alligators and jaguars in the south.

Cougars are generalist predators, meaning they eat nearly anything that comes to them, from insects to birds to moose and deer (Of course, diet varies in different places). Mostly, they ambush their prey, though they are quite capable of sprinting and catching their prey. Being true carnivores, cougars basically only eat meat, except when in near starvation, where some cougars may be desperate enough to scavenge for food.

The populations of cougars are made of adults, kittens, and other cougars, called transients, who haven't begun to breed or created their own territory. Population numbers depend on prey, hunting, and social arrangements. Females are able breed at the age of one and a half to three, and are quite polygamous, though monogamous cougars have been reported. Once given birth to a litter, females are alone, and are viciously protective; no males are involved in parenting. Usually, litters are made of two to three kittens, though, on average, only one survives. Cougars can live up to twenty years, but hunting, disease, disability, and accidents make the standard life expectancy ten to thirteen.

While female cougar territories constantly overlap each others, male cougar territory will never intersect another's, unless they are females able to breed. These large cats are private creatures; they stay away from one another, except to breed or care for kittens. They mainly conceal themselves from humans, and only attack if they feel threatened or are trapped.

For more information:

http://www.essortment.com/all/cougarsnortham_rmcp.ht m

http://www.cougarfund.org/naturalhistory/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougars

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