Puma Concolor
The Cougar, is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae. It is native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America, and is the widest of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. It is an adaptable, generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types. Due to its wide range, it has many names including puma, mountain lion, red tiger, and catamount. Intensive hunting following European colonization of the Americas and the ongoing human development into cougar habitat has caused populations to drop in most parts of its historical range. It is the second-heaviest cat in the New World after the jaguar. Secretive and largely solitary by nature, the cougar is properly considered both nocturnal although daytime sightings do occur. The cougar is more closely related to smaller felines, including the domestic cat, than to any species of subfamily Pantherinae. Cougar coloring is plain but can vary greatly across individuals and even siblings. The coat is typically tawny like that of the lion, which is why it was initially called the “mountain lion”, but it otherwise ranges from silvery or reddish with lighter patches on the underbody, including the jaws, chin, and throat.
The cougar is an ambush predator that pursues a wide variety of prey. Primary food sources are ungulates, particularly deer. It also hunts species as small as insects and rodents. This cat prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking, but can also live in open areas. The cougar is territorial and survives at low population densities. Individual territory sizes depend on terrain, vegetation, and abundance of prey. While large, it is not always the apex predator in its range, yielding prey it has killed to lone jaguars, American black bears, and grizzly bears and to groups of gray wolves. Between 1890 and 1990, in North America there were 53 reported, confirmed attacks on humans, resulting in 48 nonfatal injuries and 10 deaths of humans. By 2004, the count had climbed to 88 attacks and 20 deaths.
