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Also known as cougar, jaguar, and puma, the mountain lion stalks a wide range of habitats from Canada to South America. Its coloration is as variable as its habitat, though tawny and grayish brown are most common. Large adults may weigh as much as 220 pounds. A solitary creature, each mountain lion lives in a defined territory. Males sometimes allow females to overlap territories with theirs, but not another male.
Usually hunting in the early morning and evening, the mountain lion’s main prey is deer, though it hunts rodents, hares, and sometimes domestic livestock as well. It is a stealthy hunter, stalking its prey, then leaping as far as 20 ft to kill the animal with a powerful bite to the nape of the neck. Males are somewhat less spectacularly violent when defending a mate from rivals. Usually mating for a season, sometimes longer, females bear 2-4 young in a den among rocks or dense vegetation after a gestation of 92-96 days, often using the same den several years in a row. In the mountain lion’s northern range, young are born in summer, year round in the tropics. They begin eating solid food around 6-7 weeks and stay with the mother for 1-2 years.
Once common, the mountain lion is extirpated in much of its American range, especially in the eastern United States, where only 30-50 Florida Panthers remain. The IUCN lists the mountain lion as Near Threatened, the Florida subspecies as Critically Endangered. The main threats to the species have been loss of prey and habitat and intentional persecution. It is estimated that less than 50,000 mature breeding mountain lions remain globally.
Nature picture credits ( left to right): Photo © Jeffrey Rich (mountain lion in snow); Photo © Joshua Haviv (closeup).
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