Related Biomes
Mountain Lion
Mountain lion, Puma concolor
The mountain lion, also known as the puma, cougar or catamount, is one of the largest extant cats in North America, second only to jaguars. It also has the largest range of any mammal in the Western Hemisphere, aside from humans, extending from British Columbia to Argentina. In the U.S., they are restricted to the western states and to the extreme southern tip of Florida; however, during the late Pleistocene, these cats roamed through much of North America. Recently, an analysis of mitrochondrial DNA recovered from modern and fossil individuals located throughout North and South America has suggested that the North American mountain lion population went extinct along with many other species at the end of the Pleistocene, and that the current North and Central American populations represent a recolonization of animals from South America (Culver et al 2000).
Mountain Lion (Puma concolor) at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, taken by remote camera.
Length: males 2.2-2.3 m (7.2-7.5 ft); females 2.0-2.1 m (6.6-6.9 ft)
Weight: males 55-65 kg (121-143 lbs); females 35-45 kg (77-99 lbs)
Physical Description:
The mountain lion is long and slender with short, muscular limbs, a long cylindrical tail, short, round ears and retractable claws. Their fur is tawny colored over most of the body, with white fur covering the chest and belly and black markings on the muzzle, backs of the ears and tip of the tail. Amongst North American cats, they are second in size only to the jaguar (Panthera onca). Males and females exhibit sexual size dimorphism of roughly 50%, and this difference is relatively constant throughout their extensive geographic range (Gay and Best 1995; Kohlmann and Green 1999). On the other hand, the overall average size of these cats has been found to be highly correlated with geographic latitude, such that individuals living further from the equator have larger body sizes (Kurten 1973).
Mountain lions prefer habitats with dense undergrowth and cover, although they are very adaptable. Today they can be found in a wide range of habitats, including forests, particularly mountainous forests, tallgrass prairies, and swamps. In large part, their distribution across North America is limited by human interactions and intervention, presence or absence of prey species and availability of stalking cover (Currier 1983).
Mountain lions are obligate carnivores (they only eat meat) and opportunistic hunters. Although they prefer to prey on deer, they will also hunt smaller animals, such as raccoons, porcupines or rabbits. Mountain lions are solitary hunters and use a stalk-and-pounce technique to hunt prey. This animal will cache a larger carcass by dragging it to new location and burying it, and will then return to feed off the cached carcass over the course of several days.
Mountain lions are elusive, solitary animals that will leave an area if they perceive a threat. Each cat has a home range that encompasses the resources needed for survival, and although territorial, they will actively avoid other cats except during courtship. Despite this, an individual's home range will often overlap to some extent with that of another mountain lion. Communication between adult mountain lions is primarily visual and olfactory, whereas communication between a mother and her offspring is primarily tactile and vocal (Currier 1983).
Mountain lion remains have been recovered from late Pleistocene deposits across much of the U.S., and particularly in the southern and western states. Historically, these animals ranged across all of North America, but it is unclear how well this later distribution reflects their range during the last glaciation. Landscapes and local ecologies would have been quite different during the late Pleistocene than in the Holocene, and these landscapes would have been populated by larger predators, such as jaguars and sabertoothed cats, that offered direct competition to mountain lions.
The fate of North American mountain lions at the end of the Pleistocene is still unclear. These cats had a widespread distribution covering virtually all of North America during historic times, and until recently it was thought that the species had survived the late Pleistocene extinctions and taken the place of larger and less fortnate competitors (e.g., Smilodon fatalis). However, recent genetic studies of mountain lion populations (Anderson et al. 2004; Culver et al. 2000) have revealed much less genetic variability within North American populations than one would expect for such a well-established species. Instead, they suggest that the populations found in Central and North America actually reflect a more recent recolonization of these areas by mountain lions from South America, and postulate that North American populations did not survive the late Pleistocene extinctions as originally thought. More focused genetic studies and targeted dating are required before this intriguing question can be answered.
Although few mountain lions have been recovered from late Pleistocene sites in the Midwest, they likely were distributed throughout the more rugged areas of this region. They probably would have been important predators in areas that were not already utilized by other large cats, such as jaguars or sabertoothed cats, that presumably would have outcompeted mountain lions. However, unlike their larger competitors, mountain lions persisted in the Midwest until recent times, and they have been recovered from numerous Holocene sites throughout this region. One Pleistocene site that has produced mountain lion remains is Herculaneum Fissure in eastern Missouri, just south of St. Louis.
- Mountain lions are powerful jumpers and can leap as high as 15 feet and as far as 40 feet.
- Young mountain lions have spotted coats, but adults do not.
- Mountain lions are the largest cat that purrs.
Anderson Jr., C., Federick, G., Lindzey, F., McDonald, D. 2004. Genetic Structure of Cougar Populations Across the Wyoming Basin: Metapopulation or Megapopulation. Journal of Mammalogy, 85(6):1207-1214.
Culver, M, Johnson, W.E., Pecon-Slattery, J., O'Brien, S. 2000. Genomic Ancestry of the American Puma (Puma concolor). The American Genetic Association 91:186-197.
Currier, M. J. 1983. Felis concolor. Mammalian Species 200:1-7.
Gay, S., Best, T. 1995. Geographic variation in sexual dimorphism of the puma (Puma concolor) in North and South America. Southwestern Naturalist 40:148-159.
Kohlmann, S., Green, R. 1999. Body size dynamics of cougars (Felis concolor) in Oregon. Great Basin Naturalist 59:193-194.
Kurtén, B. 1973. Geographic variation in size in the puma (Felis concolor). Commentationes Biologicae 63:3-8.
Related Animals:
