Cougar

In Canada, cougar, mountain lion, puma, and panther are all the same species, which is known to scientists as Felis concolor. This animal is one of only three wild felids (the general name for any member of the cat family) native to Canada; it is larger than the other two, the bobcat and the lynx, and has a much longer tail.

This animal has many names, in many languages. The Malecites of New Brunswick called it "pi-twal," meaning "the long tailed one." English settlers along the Atlantic coast called it "panther" after the Old World panther, which they had seen in animal shows, zoos, and works of art. The French explorers of southern Quebec and New Brunswick called it the "carcajou," a name later given to the wolverine farther west, which caused confusion in the literature about the two animals. The English name "cougar" and French "couguar," now widely used in Canada, were adapted from the Brazilian native name "cuguacuarana." The name "mountain lion" is widely accepted, especially in the western United States. "Puma" is the native Peruvian name.

Range and subspecies

The cougar's range has decreased since European settlement, but is still the most extensive of any terrestrial mammal in the western hemisphere. It extends north to the Yukon border at 60° N and south to Patagonia.

In Canada, where the cougar's range once mirrored that of its chief food, the deer — extending from the west coast south of 60° N, across the prairies, through the forests of southern Ontario to the lower Ottawa valley, into the St. Lawrence valley of Quebec, and into New Brunswick — this large predator is now common only in the west.

There are four Canadian subspecies of the cougar. The subspecies native to eastern Canada F.c. cougar (Kerr) is listed as endangered by both the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in Canada and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) internationally. Some authorities think it is extinct. (The eastern cougar found in southern Florida is a different subspecies.) The other three Canadian subspecies of the cougar occur in western Canada. F.c. missoulensis (Goldman) ranges through southwestern Alberta and in the interior of British Columbia, F.c. oregonensis (Rafinesque) is found along the Coast Range of British Columbia, and F.c. vancouverensis (Nelson and Goldman) is indigenous only on Vancouver Island.

Although well established populations exist only in the forested parts of British Columbia and western Alberta, cougars have been occasionally reported in the last 10 years in every province except Prince Edward Island. At least some of the sightings from the eastern provinces (the range of the endangered Kerr subspecies) have proven to be encounters with western cougars that had escaped from captivity: other sightings are still disputed. The last eastern cougar to be killed in Canada was shot near the Quebec-Maine border in 1938, and its remains are at the University of New Brunswick. Although there has been no undisputed evidence since then of the existence of the Kerr subspecies, nonetheless, cougars are so reclusive that scientific opinion remains divided on whether the Kerr subspecies is extinct.

Physical characteristics

The cougar is the second largest cat in the New World. (The jaguar is the largest.) Like all cats, it has a lithe, muscular, compact, and deep-chested body, with a rounded and shortened head. Its whiskers are well developed and its eyes are large. One of the cougar's distinctive characteristics is its long tail, which is useful for balance.

Cougars vary considerably in size and weight throughout their range. Among all races, adult males typically weigh 1.4 times more than females. In southwestern Alberta, mean weights for adult males and females are 71kg and 4lkg, respectively. Total body lengths of adult male cougars in North America are slightly more than 2m and of adult females, slightly less than 2m.

The North American cougar's normal colour is reddish tawny or tawny grey to dark chocolate brown. The backs of the ears and the tip of the tail are black, and there are black markings on the face. The kittens are spotted at birth, but the spots disappear before the end of their first year.

The cougar is well equipped for grasping and cutting up large prey. Its forequarters and neck are exceptionally strong. Its muscular jaws, wide gape, and long canine teeth are designed for clamping down on and holding onto prey larger than itself. The cougar has, in addition, teeth that are specially adapted for cutting meat, tendons, and sinews.

Like all members of the cat family, cougars have five digits on the forepaw and four on the hindpaw. Each digit is equipped with a claw, which the cougar sheathes while walking, but which it uses with deadly effectiveness when grasping its prey. The front feet and claws are larger than their counterparts in the rear, again adaptations for clutching large prey.

Populations and home ranges

Cougar populations are made up of resident adults, dependent cubs, and transients. Transients most often are independent young cougars who have not yet settled on their own territory, or "home range," or begun to breed. In western North America, population density of cougars ranges from 0.3 to 9.2 per 100km² and is limited by abundance of prey, the availability of suitable hunting sites, and the cougar's social structure. Because cougars reside at the top of the food chain, healthy cougar populations are good indicators of healthy and balanced ecosystems.

Male cougars usually have large home ranges that do not overlap the territories of other males but overlap the ranges of several females. The home ranges of female cougars may overlap a great deal among themselves. Among females, those with large litters and older kittens typically have the largest home ranges, because a large cougar family needs more food. In areas where prey are migratory, cougars may have more than one home range.

Even where their home ranges overlap, cougars avoid each other. Adults of both sexes travel alone, except when mating or when adult females are accompanied by their kittens.

Life history

Cougars are polygamous. A male with a large home range is able to breed a large number of females, and this increases his reproductive success. A resident male usually attempts to maintain exclusive breeding rights with females within his area.

The male visits all the females he can find, continually searching for those in heat that will accept him, and marks out his territory with scent posts called scrapes. He may travel many kilometres in these searches; one male covered 50km in a day and a night. Fighting may occur initially, but once individuals are settled on a territory little strife occurs. This peaceful social system helps to maintain stable cougar populations.

Normally a silent hunter, the cougar, like any cat, becomes vocal when ready to breed. Female cougars in heat have been seen and heard yowling. Cougars do not breed in any special season, and the young may be born at any time of the year.

The females mate for the first time when they are two to three years old, and the gestation period is about 90 days. The female selects a sheltered spot, such as a cave or windfall, for her litter. From one to six cubs may be born, although rarely are more than three full-grown cubs found with the mother. The cubs are born with closed eyes that are fully open by the end of the second week. They are usually weaned at four to five weeks. Care of the cubs rests solely with the female, who brings them food and teaches them to hunt. She prevents the male from even approaching the small cubs, by combat if necessary, as the adult male has been known to eat them. The cubs stay with the female until they are about one and a half years old, by which time the male kittens are larger than their mother. In spite of her instructions in the rudiments of survival, the cubs have a difficult time when they are first on their own. Resident females usually produce litters every 18-24 months. In the southwestern foothills of Alberta, the rate at which kittens reached independence was close to two kittens per female per year over a seven-year period.

In jurisdictions where cougar hunting with hounds is allowed, hunting is the most common cause of death. (Cougars are normally elusive, but can be treed by hounds.) Natural mortality occurs in many ways. Because cougars frequently kill prey larger than themselves, they are continually exposed to the risk of serious injuries which eventually take their toll. Cougars have sustained broken backs, massive chest injuries, and perforated abdomens while trying to kill prey. When a female with a litter dies, the cubs usually die also, unless they are over 9-12 months old and can feed and defend themselves. The independent young subadult cougars are more prone to starvation than their elders. Male cougars occasionally kill kittens, young subadults, and other adult males in territorial disputes.

Habitat and food

Cougars occupy a wide range of vegetation types. In North America, they use habitat suitable for white-tailed deer and mule deer. In western Canada, cougars are found in forested parts of the foothills, mountains, and interior plateaus. Cover, in the form of vegetation and broken topography, is more important to cougars than any particular vegetation type.

Cougars hunt mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, and moose calves, where they are available, although as opportunistic predators they eat many other species of mammals and birds. In some areas, cougars prey on bighorn sheep. Where different prey species are available the diets of male and female cougars may be significantly different. In winter in the Sheep River area of southwestern Alberta, moose calves made up about 85% of the winter prey of male cougars, whereas deer and elk represented 79% of the diet of female cougars. When cougars hunt smaller mammals, they take porcupine, beaver, coyote, snowshoe hare, and ground squirrels most frequently. Cougars typically kill their own food; scavenging is rare.

Like all cats, cougars hunt more by sight and hearing than by scent. They stalk their prey to within two or three great leaps and then launch a lightning-fast charge that ends with the cougar striking the prey with the full impact of the charge and bearing it to the ground.

Cougars kill most often by suffocating with a prolonged bite across the throat, collapsing the victim's trachea, or by breaking the victim's neck with a single bite. Large prey, such as moose calves and elk, are usually suffocated. Small prey, like mule deer fawns are more likely to die from broken necks. After a kill, a cougar will cover its victim with debris between feedings to reduce the likelihood of scavengers finding the carcass.

Relations with people

In the high Andes the cougar was once hunted by the Incas in great "ring" hunts, in which the army surrounded a large area, drove all the animals in it toward the centre and, in the final ring, killed the predators, especially the cougars, which they saw as dangerous predators on their herds of guanacos and vicuñas, and allowed the other animals to escape.

When the first Europeans reached Canada they, too, began to view the cougar as an enemy. Cougars earned this status by making raids on settlers' livestock and by occasionally attacking human beings. A no-quarter war was waged against the cougars with all means available, from hounds to traps and poison, including bounties of up to $50. The cougar virtually disappeared in the east. Fortunately, sufficient wilderness remained to enable the western cougar to survive. Bounties have been removed and today, with enlightened management, cougars are repopulating former ranges.

Cougars are extremely elusive and usually avoid direct contact with people. Masters of camouflage, they often remain hidden when approached closely on foot. While tracking a cougar one winter day, a researcher stepped within 1 m of its hiding place beneath a large spruce tree, before the cat exploded from beneath it, heading away. Such a rarely seen animal, tracks in the snow are usually the only sign of a cougar's passage.

Reading list

• Banfield, A.W.F. 1974. The mammals of Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
• Hornocker, M. 1970. The American lion. Natural History 79 (9): 40-49 and 68-71.
• Lindzey, F. 1987. Mountain lion. Pages 656-668 in Novak, M., J.A. Baker, M.E. Obbard, and B. Malloch, editors. Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America. Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario, Canada.
• Lynch, W. 1989. The elusive cougar. Canadian Geographic 109(4): 24-31.
• Pall, O., M. Jalkotzy, and I. Ross. 1988. The cougar in Alberta. Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife, Fish and Wildlife Division, Edmonton, Alberta.
• Wright, B.S. 1959. The ghost of North America -- the story of the eastern panther. Vantage Press. New York.
• Young, S.P. and E.A. Goldman. 1946. The puma -- mysterious American cat. The American Wildlife Institute. Washington, D.C.

	Canadian Wildlife Service - Hinterland Who's Who series Reproduced with permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1999. Copyright © 1999 Environment Canada. All rights reserved. Last update: 19 January 1999