Cougar

112 languages
 Article
 Talk
 Read
 View source
 View history
Tools



















From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Mountain lion" redirects here. For other uses, see Cougar
(disambiguation) and Mountain lion (disambiguation).

Cougar

Temporal range: 1.2–0 Ma

PreꞒ

S
 D

Pg

N
↓

Early Pleistocene – Holocene

A North American cougar in Glacier

National Park, United States

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) [1]

CITES Appendix II (CITES) [1][a]

Scientific classification

Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Suborder: Feliformia

Family: Felidae

Subfamily: Felinae

Genus: Puma

Species: P. concolor

Binomial name

Puma concolor

(Linnaeus, 1771)[2]

Subspecies

 P. c. concolor
 P. c. couguar

Also see text

 Cougar range (without recent

confirmations across northern Canadian

territories, eastern U.S. states, and

Alaska)

The cougar (Puma concolor) (/ˈkuːɡər/, KOO-gər), also known as

the panther, mountain lion, catamount and puma, is a large cat native to the
Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely
distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most
widespread in the world. Its range spans the Canadian Territory of Yukon, British
Columbia and Alberta provinces, the Rocky Mountains and areas in the Western United
States. Further south, its range extends through Mexico to the Amazon Rainforest and
the southern Andes Mountains in Patagonia. It is an adaptable, generalist species,
occurring in most American habitat types. It prefers habitats with dense underbrush and
rocky areas for stalking but also lives in open areas.
The cougar is largely solitary. Its activity pattern varies
from diurnality and cathemerality to crepuscularity and nocturnality between protected
and non-protected areas, and is apparently correlated with the presence of other
predators, prey species, livestock and humans. It is an ambush predator that pursues a
wide variety of prey. Ungulates, particularly deer, are its primary prey, but it also
hunts rodents. It is territorial and lives at low population densities. Individual home
ranges depend on terrain, vegetation and abundance of prey. While large, it is not
always the dominant apex predator in its range, yielding prey to other predators. It is
reclusive and mostly avoids people. Fatal attacks on humans are rare but increased in
North America as more people entered cougar habitat and built farms.
The cougar is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Intensive hunting
following European colonization of the Americas and ongoing human development into
cougar habitat has caused populations to decline in most parts of its historical range. In
particular, the eastern cougar population is considered to be mostly locally extinct in
eastern North America since the early 20th century, with the exception of the
isolated Florida panther subpopulation.
Naming and etymology

Look up cougar in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word cougar is borrowed from the Portuguese çuçuarana, via French; it was
originally derived from the Tupi language. A current form in Brazil is suçuarana.[3] In the
17th century, Georg Marcgrave named it cuguacu ara. Marcgrave's rendering was
reproduced in 1648 by his associate Willem Piso. Cuguacu ara was then adopted
by John Ray in 1693.[4] In 1774, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de
Buffon converted cuguacu ara to cuguar, which was later modified to "cougar" in
English.[5][6]
The cougar holds the Guinness record for the animal with the greatest number of
names, with over 40 in English alone.[7] "Puma" is the common name used in Latin
America and most parts of Europe. The term puma is also sometimes used in the
United States.[8][9][10][11] The first use of puma in English dates to 1777, introduced from
Spanish from the Quechua language.[12] In the western United States and Canada, it is
also called "mountain lion", a name first used in writing in 1858.[13] Other names include
"panther" (although it does not belong to the genus Panthera) and "catamount"
(meaning "cat of the mountains").[14]
Taxonomy and evolution
Felis concolor was the scientific name proposed by Carl Linnaeus in 1771 for a cat with
a long tail from Brazil.[15] The second half of the name, "concolor" is Latin for "of uniform
color". It was placed in the genus Puma by William Jardine in 1834.[16] This genus is part
of the Felinae.[2] The cougar is most closely related to the jaguarundi and the cheetah.[17]
[18]

Subspecies

South American cougar at Torres del Paine National

Park, in the Chilean part of Patagonia
Following Linnaeus's first scientific description of the cougar, 32 cougar zoological
specimens were described and proposed as subspecies until the late
1980s. Genetic analysis of cougar mitochondrial DNA indicate that many of these are
too similar to be recognized as distinct at a molecular level, but that only
six phylogeographic groups exist. The Florida panther samples showed a
low microsatellite variation, possibly due to inbreeding.[18] Following this research, the
authors of Mammal Species of the World recognized the following six subspecies in
2005:[2]

 P. c. concolor (Linnaeus, 1771) includes

the synonyms bangsi, incarum, osgoodi, soasoaranna, sussuarana, soderstr
omii, suçuaçuara, and wavula
 P. c. puma (Molina, 1782) includes the
synonyms araucanus, concolor, patagonica, pearsoni, and puma (Trouessart,
1904)
 P. c. couguar (Kerr,
1792) includes arundivaga, aztecus, browni, californica, floridana, hippolestes,
improcera, kaibabensis, mayensis, missoulensis, olympus, oregonensis, sch
orgeri, stanleyana, vancouverensis, and youngi
 P. c. costaricensis (Merriam, 1901)
 P. c. anthonyi (Nelson and Goldman,
1931) includes acrocodia, borbensis, capricornensis, concolor, greeni,
and nigra
 P. c. cabrerae Pocock, 1940 includes hudsonii and puma proposed by Marcelli in
1922
In 2006, the Florida panther was still referred to as a distinct subspecies P. c. coryi in
research works.[19]
As of 2017, the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group recognizes only
two subspecies as valid:[20]

 P. c. concolor in South America, possibly excluding the region northwest of

the Andes
 P. c. couguar in North and Central America and possibly northwestern South
America
Evolution
Lynx lineage
Lynx
Puma lineage Acinonyx
Cheetah A. jubatus
Puma
Cougar
Herpailurus
Jaguarundi
 The Puma lineage of the family Felidae, depicted
along with closely related genera[21]

The family Felidae is believed to have originated in Asia about 11 million years ago
(Mya). Taxonomic research on felids remains partial, and much of what is known about
their evolutionary history is based on mitochondrial DNA analysis.
[17]
Significant confidence intervals exist with suggested dates. In the
latest genomic study of the Felidae, the common ancestor of
today's Leopardus, Lynx, Puma, Prionailurus, and Felis lineages migrated across
the Bering land bridge into the Americas 8.0 to 8.5 million years ago. The lineages
subsequently diverged in that order.[17] North American felids then invaded South
America 2–4 Mya as part of the Great American Interchange, following the formation of
the Isthmus of Panama.[18]
The cheetah lineage is suggested by some studies to have diverged from
the Puma lineage in the Americas and migrated back to Asia and Africa,[17][18] while other
research suggests the cheetah diverged in the Old World itself.[22] A high level of genetic
similarity has been found among North American cougar populations, suggesting they
are all fairly recent descendants of a small ancestral group. Culver et al. propose the
original North American cougar population was extirpated during the Pleistocene
extinctions some 10,000 years ago, when other large mammals, such as Smilodon, also
disappeared. North America was then repopulated by South American cougars.[18]
A coprolite identified as from a cougar was excavated in Argentina's Catamarca
Province and dated to 17,002–16,573 years old. It contained Toxascaris leonina eggs.
This finding indicates that the cougar and the parasite existed in South America since at
least the Late Pleistocene.[23] The oldest fossil record of a cougar (Puma concolor) in
South America (Argentina) is a partial skull from the late Calabrian (Ensenadan) age.[24]
Characteristics
Cougar skull and jawbone

Front paw print of a cougar

The head of the cougar is round, and the ears are erect. Its powerful forequarters, neck,
and jaw serve to grasp and hold large prey. It has four retractile claws on its hind paws
and five on its forepaws, of which one is a dewclaw. The larger front feet and claws are
adaptations for clutching prey.[25]
Cougars are slender and agile members of the Felidae. They are the fourth largest cat
species worldwide;[26] adults stand about 60 to 90 cm (24 to 35 in) tall at the shoulders.
[27]
Adult males are around 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) long from nose to tail tip, and females
average 2.05 m (6 ft 9 in), with overall ranges between 1.50 to 2.75 m (4 ft 11 in to 9 ft
0 in) nose to tail suggested for the species in general.[28][29] Of this length, the tail typically
accounts for 63 to 95 cm (25 to 37 in).[30] Males generally weigh 53 to 72 kg (117 to
159 lb). Females typically weigh between 34 and 48 kg (75 and 106 lb).[30][31] Cougar size
is smallest close to the equator and larger towards the poles.[32] The largest recorded
cougar, shot in 1901, weighed 105.2 kg (232 lb); claims of 125.2 kg (276 lb) and 118 kg
(260 lb) have been reported, though they were probably exaggerated.[33] Male cougars in
North America average 62 kg (137 lb), while the average female in the same region
averages about 42 kg (93 lb).[34] On average, adult male cougars in British Columbia
weigh 56.7 kg (125 lb) and adult females 45.4 kg (100 lb), though several male cougars
in British Columbia weighed between 86.4 and 95.5 kg (190 and 211 lb).[35]
Depending on the locality, cougars can be smaller or bigger than jaguars but are less
muscular and not as powerfully built, so on average their weight is less. Whereas the
size of cougars tends to increase as distance from the equator increases,[32] which
crosses the northern portion of South America, jaguars are generally smaller north of
the Amazon River in South America and larger south of it. For example, while South
American jaguars are comparatively large, and may exceed 90 kg (200 lb),[36] North
American jaguars in Mexico's Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve weigh
approximately 50 kg (110 lb), about the same as female cougars.[37]
Cougar coloring is plain (hence the Latin concolor ["one color"] in the scientific name)
but can vary greatly across individuals, and even siblings. The coat is typically tawny,
but it otherwise ranges from silvery-grey to reddish with lighter patches on the
underbody, including the jaws, chin, and throat. Infants are spotted and born with blue
eyes and rings on their tails;[31] juveniles are pale, and dark spots remain on their flanks.
[29]
A leucistic individual was seen in Serra dos Órgãos National Park in Rio de Janeiro in
2013 when it was recorded by a camera trap, indicating that pure white individuals do
exist within the species, though they are extremely rare.[38][39]
The cougar has large paws and proportionally the largest hind legs in the Felidae,
[31]
allowing for its great leaping and short-sprint ability. It is capable of leaping from the
ground up to 5.5 m (18 ft) high into a tree.[40]
Distribution and habitat

A camera trap image of a cougar in Saguaro National

Park, Arizona
The cougar has the largest range of any wild land animal in the Americas, spanning 110
degrees of latitude from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes in Chile.[1] The species
was extirpated from eastern North America, aside from Florida, but they may be
recolonizing their former range and isolated populations have been documented east of
their contemporary ranges in both the Midwestern US and Canada.[41]
The cougar lives in all forest types, lowland and mountainous deserts and in open areas
with little vegetation up to an elevation of 5,800 m (19,000 ft).[1] In the Santa Ana
Mountains, it prefers steep canyons, escarpments, rim rocks and dense brush.[42] In
Mexico, it was recorded in the Sierra de San Carlos.[43] In the Yucatán Peninsula, it
inhabits secondary and semi-deciduous forests in El Eden Ecological Reserve.[44] In El
Salvador, it was recorded in lower montane forest in Montecristo National Park and in a
river basin in the Morazán Department above 700 m (2,300 ft) in 2019.[45] In Colombia, it
was recorded in a palm oil plantation close to a riparian forest in the Llanos Basin, and
close to water bodies in the Magdalena River Valley.[46][47] In the human-modified
landscape of central Argentina, it inhabits bushland with abundant vegetation cover and
prey species.[48]