Did you recognize that mountain lions have the most important geographic vary of any non-human land mammals within the Western Hemisphere? It’s no shock this magnificent animal, native to the Americas, is known as many issues: puma, catamount, cougar, painter and panther. The motive is as a result of folks from varied international locations, from Chile to Canada, have totally different names for it. The animal additionally has a mess of nicknames, such because the ghost of the Rockies, pink tiger and mountain screamer, amongst others.
Meet Puma Concolor
No matter what you name it, it’s nonetheless the identical wild cat, scientifically generally known as Puma concolor, which suggests a big feline resembling a lion with one strong coloration. However, these beauties are available in a spread of shades, from rust and grayish to a tawny tan, and their infants are noticed. Dark-colored markings are discovered on the ears, across the snout and on the tip of the tail.
These predators sport a strong physique with quick legs, upright ears, massive paws, sharp claws, placing steely eyes and an extended tail. Their hind legs are bigger and extra muscular than their entrance, giving them nice leaping energy.
A enjoyable reality about these massive cats is that they can’t roar like lions. Instead, they hiss, purr or growl, like home cats!
Although the mountain lion is the one massive cat species with an growing inhabitants, its present numbers nonetheless don’t rival these of its previous. It continues to face threats as a consequence of prey depletion, human-wildlife battle and habitat loss from agricultural and concrete improvement.
Keep studying to study extra about these fascinating mammals, tips on how to assist guarantee their survival, and the place to see them.
Wild Cats: What’s in a Name?
Because the mountain lion has such a variety, spanning 28 international locations and 16 states within the U.S., it goes by many names. In reality, it has so many names in English alone (round 40) that it holds the Guinness Book of World Records distinction.
In North America, the feline is also known as mountain lion, cougar and panther, the final primarily in Florida. Spanish explorers in North and South America referred to it as gato monte (cat of the mountain) and leon (lion), which translated to mountain lion through the years.
A mountain lion surveying the deserts of the American Southwest from atop a sandstone ledge.
The time period cougar could have come from an previous phrase that the Portuguese picked up in Brazil: çuçuarana. More widespread references are the Colorado cougar and Yuma (Arizona) cougar. East of Mississippi, the animal can also be known as catamount, deer tiger and painter.
The phrase panther encompasses all cats that includes a solid-colored coat, and it’s utilized to large cats, akin to mountain lions, in addition to jaguars and leopards which might be black in coloration. The Florida panther, the state’s official animal, is a subspecies of the mountain lion. While not black in coloration, it options tawny-beige fur and a curved tail. It is without doubt one of the most endangered mammals on the earth.
A panther walks by way of the tall grasses of Florida’s numerous terrain. You might be able to spot one on a Florida Nature Safari!
The Incas of South America known as the animal puma of their language, and it has a symbolic significance representing energy, knowledge and intelligence. It continues to be known as such within the international locations that it calls dwelling.
Wild puma monitoring prey down the rocks slopes and mountainside of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile.
Range and Where to See Them
The mountain lion is an adaptable large cat that may reside, as its identify suggests, within the mountains. But it additionally thrives in deserts, forests, prairies and wetlands and is even seen within the fringes of cities.
Chasing after prey in Florida’s forests.
Mountain lions are present in 14 western states. The Florida panther solely calls the Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve dwelling. There was a time the place these predators have been discovered throughout the South, from Louisiana to South Florida. Their numbers dwindled to as few as 25 to 30 by the early Nineteen Nineties. Today, there are about 200 cats left in Florida’s swamplands. Lucky vacationers could spot the endangered animal on a Natural Habitat Adventures Florida Nature Safari within the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, located within the Western Everglades.
Living life on the sting in South America’s high-altitude setting.
Puma sightings are additionally attainable in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia, amongst others. Guests on Nat Hab’s Brazil journey can search for them within the Pantanal tropical wetland. In Patagonia, the puma is the most important predator, and its vary spans from Arica to Magallanes on the tip of Chile. On Nat Hab’s Patagonia Wilderness & Wildlife Explorer journey, these animals may be noticed in Torres del Paine National Park.
A denning website in Torres del Paine National Park.
It appears that geographic location determines the scale and coloration of the animal. They are smaller close to the equator and bigger across the poles. Males weigh wherever from 115 to 220 kilos and females between 64 to 141 kilos. Mountain lions in colder climates are inclined to have longer and thicker hair in a silver-gray coloration, whereas these in hotter and humid areas are reddish brown.
Survival
These strong felines are ambush predators who stalk their prey round daybreak and nightfall earlier than pouncing and killing it with their robust jaws. Similar to the cheetah, the mountain lion has a versatile backbone that helps it transfer round obstacles and shortly change course when wanted. They are carnivores and eat small mammals, akin to deer and guanaco (a camelid native to South America). Mountain lions additionally hunt sheep, feral pigs, raccoons, armadillos, squirrels, hares and even porcupines. Stronger ones will even go after elk and moose. The animal is thought to bury its meals to return again and feast on later.
Mountain lions are elusive and don’t like confrontation with people. Encountering one on a hike or in your neighborhood is unlikely. Avoid going out in mountain lion areas at daybreak and nightfall (after they hunt) to forestall any encounters. When tenting, by no means depart meals out.
Conservation
Mountain lions are listed as of least concern on the IUCN Red List; nevertheless, their inhabitants is on the decline. In the U.S., the Florida panther is protected below the Endangered Species Act. Sadly, the Eastern cougar was declared extinct in 2018, with the final confirmed sighting in 1938.
Until the arrival of European settlers within the late 1800s, these felines roamed wild areas from Canada’s Yukon to the tip of South America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Soon after, mountain lion habitat started to vanish, together with their prey. These stunning animals have been killed for his or her fur and to guard livestock. They have been thought of vermin, and bounty packages have been launched to manage their numbers within the West within the Forties. This prompted the mountain lion inhabitants to lower drastically. Today, there are solely an estimated 30,000 cougars in North America.
Habitat loss poses the most important menace to mountain lions, together with fragmentation from freeways, overhunting of their prey and retaliatory assaults for preying on livestock. Pumas are territorial, solitary and wish massive areas of habitat to outlive. With the rise in human inhabitants and concrete improvement, conflicts are inevitable, and, with that, killings of those animals for his or her perceived threats. Heavily traveled roads in locations like California are harmful for mountain lions that roam a number of miles a day in quest of meals, and Florida panthers are sometimes victims of motorcar collisions.
A cougar seeks short-term shelter below a parked automobile.
Mountain lions are thought of recreation species, with leisure searching allowed in 13 states. California and Florida are among the many states the place searching mountain lions is prohibited. In Florida, illegally killing a panther is punishable by as much as a 12 months in jail and carries a hefty tremendous. The authorities of Chile prohibited searching of pumas in 1980.
Looking Ahead
There is a silver lining, as researchers started to seek out small pockets of cougar populations within the east of the Rocky Mountains within the Nineteen Nineties, together with within the Midwest and as far east as Connecticut and Maine. In 1995, eight feminine cougars have been introduced from Texas to Florida to mate with males in an effort to scale back inbreeding and enhance the inhabitants. The effort proved profitable and prevented the state animal from changing into extinct.
As apex predators, mountain lions play an vital function in sustaining the biodiversity and steadiness of the ecosystem. They hold feral hog, deer and raccoon numbers down, guaranteeing they don’t develop uncontrolled for that habitat. They additionally assist curb illnesses, akin to Lyme illness, which might be dangerous to people and home canine. These pure engineers deserve our respect and safety from threats throughout the Americas.
