Barnes listed 18 native South American, 25 native North American, and 40 English names for the same animal. Depending on the region and native language, common names for the American lion include: mountain lion, cougar, panther, puma, painter, el leon, and catamount. Although the mountain lion may have more names and nicknames than any other animal, the following are not names for lions and represent completely different species: bobcat, lynx, ocelot, jaguar, leopard, cheetah, Asiatic lion, African lion, and tiger.
To date there has never been a confirmed case of a melanistic black mountain lion. The solitary and elusive nature of mountain lions makes them difficult to research and practically impossible to count. Population estimation models are based on numerous long-term studies of lion populations, their prey, and habitat mapping.
Based on the best available data at this time, the Mountain Lion Foundation believes the mountain lion population in the United States is unlikely to exceed 30, And, many of those lions depend upon severely fragmented and degraded habitat, are in severe danger of over-hunting and road kill, are imperiled by intolerance of their presence on the landscape, and are so few and unconnected they are on the edge of genetic viability.
People are responsible for the death of more than 3, mountain lions in the U. Puma concolor means lion of one color. Adult mountain lions have a tan-colored coat — much like the African lion — but are slighter in build with a head that is smaller in proportion to its body. The sexes look alike, though male lions are 30 to 40 percent larger than females.
Exceptional individuals have exceeded pounds, but this is rare. Adult males will measure 6 to 8 feet from nose to tail tip and females 5 to 7 feet. Mountain lion kittens or cubs either term is correct have camouflaging spots and rings around their tails that fade as they mature. Mountain lions used to occupy the entire United States coast-to-coast, but today they are primarily found in 14 western states with a small endangered population in Florida.
Five very small populations have regained an unsteady foothold just east of the Rockies in the s and 90s, but their future is uncertain.
They prefer areas with dense undergrowth and cover, and will leave an area if they perceive a threat. Found in deserts, humid coast forests, arid hillsides, scrub and oak woodlands, lions can live from sea level to snow-covered mountain peaks. A ten year lifespan is considered old age for a mountain lion in the wild. Lions in captivity have been known to live twice that long. In areas where mountain lions are hunted for sport, only a small percentage make it past five years old.
Cougar tracks can be identified by their size and shape. The comparison footprints at right are 30 percent of their actual size. If one draws a line across the tips of the second and third digits of a paw and another across the top of the first and fourth digits, the two lines will be roughly parallel in dogs and coyotes but not in pumas.
Since the Oklahoma Red Rocks Cat made its appearance in , there have been more than cougars confirmed as carcasses east of the Rocky Mountains—across the agricultural plains of the Midwest, into the heart of Chicago, and even all the way to the Eastern Seaboard.
Indeed, in the ensuing decade we have found populations of mountain lions in North Dakota, and in three spots in Nebraska, the big cats are breeding. Mountain lions and bobcats are often confused with one another in photographs. They can be distinguished by the presence or absence of the tail and by their size difference.
If the hind end is obstructed and the scale is unclear in a photo, the mountain lion can also be identified by its smaller head in relation to the size of its body, its lack of ear tufts, and the black fur on the back of its ears.
It took only seven years for the record-breaking dispersal distance of the Red Rocks Cat to be surpassed. The 4,kilometer passage and unfortunate end of this young male was so phenomenal that journalist William Stolzenburg wrote a book about him. Certainly such a trek is book-worthy, but for mountain lions to set up shop in these new places, males cannot be the only ones making the dangerous journey.
Breeding females, and males with the ability to find them, are key. Or so we thought. In about , the major milestone of confirmation that a female had reproduced in the Midwest was met: A photo from Nebraska revealed kittens with their mother—in an area where our map had predicted only marginal habitat for cougars, or at least not enough contiguous habitat to have a sustainable population.
Not only has northwestern Nebraska become repopulated with cougars in the past decade, but DNA evidence of females—potentially still alive, even—was discovered in southeastern Nebraska and in Missouri in , and probably most impressively in Tennessee in late We have DNA samples from three different animals in those three locations, but the individuals are related to populations in the Black Hills and in places in Nebraska. We have to keep tracking these confirmations diligently and plotting them systematically to learn what we can expect.
The plains of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma always struck me as an unlikely context for a creature that requires substantial cover with trees, boulders, and other vegetation to stalk its prey. And maybe the river corridors are not only allowing for easier travel, but are also acting like a funnel to move mountain lions toward some of the best habitat the Midwest has to offer. Click the map to replay it and click here to visit the interactive version at The Cougar Network.
So, what else can we learn from these cats? How can we continue to watch them spread, and how can we ensure that citizens and residents are adequately informed? These are questions left to be investigated, but if history is any indication, we might have answers sooner than we think. Based on the original map my colleagues and I created in , we recently predicted the likely timeline of female mountain lions showing up in the suitable habitat the Midwest has to offer. Our models suggest this recolonization will happen within 25 years.
This prediction, which has yet to fully be borne out, is important to grasp. Wildlife managers need to consider how people will feel about having a large predator in their general vicinity on the continent—let alone in their backyards. We have enough information now to start tackling a critical component of wildlife management: people and their perceptions. Convincing a single person, let alone large groups, that mountain lions are healthy for the environment can be a tough sell.
Even though mountain lions can travel long distances, have two to three kittens every three years or so, move stealthily so as not to be detected, and prey on deer that carry ticks and also tick-borne illnesses, the fact of the matter remains that to sustain mountain lions in areas where they have been previously extirpated, we conservation biologists have a lot of communicating to do.
A young male mountain lion traveled 4, kilometers east from his birthplace in the Black Hills of South Dakota and was ultimately found in June in Connecticut after he was hit by a car. Adapted by Barbara Aulicino from a National Geographic map.
I created my Twitter-based photo guessing game, CougarOrNot , in the spirit of demystifying the lore surrounding cougars that crop up in odd places.
The accuracy increases when a cougar actually appears in the photo, but the false positive rates, especially when the animal in the photo is a bobcat, are quite high. The second point I hope to make is that among all the photos the Cougar Network receives each year, we find very few photos of actual cougars.
They are incredibly elusive on the landscape, even in places where populations are abundant. Extrapolating to a region such as the Midwest, where there are relatively few individuals, the likelihood that you would see one cross your path in the wee hours of the morning, for example, is very low. Putting these two pieces of information together brings me to my final point: We need to normalize the fact that carnivores may be present among us and are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.
Although cougars are not without their share of odd mishaps, largely speaking they would prefer to avoid us humans. I hope to quash the idea that we need to be irrationally afraid of these creatures of the night, and I hope instead to cultivate a healthy respect for them and for their role in their ecosystems. The fact that a large carnivore is likely to continue making a comeback in a region where it used to exist gives me hope that science-based decision-making and careful communication about a contentious issue can prevail.
I find new clues that keep me intrigued, while I also seek common ground with the people who live in areas within that expanded range. I am in constant search of the next Red Rocks Cat—the next indicator that something new is about to happen. For each of the images below, look carefully at the animal in the photograph.
Description The mountain lion—also known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamount—is a large cat species native to the Americas. Diet Mountain lions are stealthy predators, hunting at night and often lying in wait for prey or silently stalking it before pouncing from behind and delivering a lethal bite to the spinal cord. Life History Mountain lions can breed year-round. Conservation The historic range of the mountain lion included almost all of North and South America. Fun Fact Unlike other large cats, they cannot roar.
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Join Ranger Rick Inspire a lifelong connection with wildlife and wild places through our children's publications, products, and activities Learn More. The mountain lion started to move back down the slope, but followed parallel as the two slowly backed up on the trail, keeping their eyes toward the lion until they were separated by more bush and a steeper slope. Girardeau half jokingly credited watching famed dog trainer Caesar Millan, one if his favorite shows, for his tactic.
According to Dr. Winston Vickers, associate veterinarian at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, the pair did the right thing by making it well known, by yelling loudly at the lion, that they were human so they were not mistaken as prey. He noted it is rare for lions to move toward people, with most heading the other direction when they see people.
However, females with kittens will sometimes bluff charge a human to drive them away, or in this case the cat may have mistaken them for prey animals until they got closer.
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