Eastern Cougar

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Eastern Cougar
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Eastern Cougar

• Additional Names
• Puma
• Mountain lion
• Catamount
• Panther

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Physical Description

• Adult cougars weigh an average of 140 pounds.
  Next to the jaguar, it is the largest North
  American cat.
• Adult cougars are about seven feet from nose to
  tip of tail.
• Its tail is almost as long as the body.
• Its color is brown to gray.

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Physical Description

• Cougars have binocular vision their eyes allow
  them to hunt both day and night.
• Cougars have cup-shaped ears that move together
  or independently.
• Cougars make a variety of sounds including
  chirps, peeps, purrs, screams, and growls, but
  they cant roar.

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Behaviors

• Cougars can jump 15 feet high and 40 feet wide.
• Cougars can climb trees and swim rivers.
• Cougars are solitary hunters they stay low to
  the ground and use whatever cover is around. When
  they get close to their prey, they explode in a
  sprint up to 35 miles per hour.
• Cougars often kill old, weak, or sick animals.

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Eating Habits

• Cougars usually bite on the back of the neck,
  occasionally the throat.
• Cougars generally drag their prey out of sights
  and try to cover it with leaves or grass.
• Cougars prefer to eat deer, but will eat other
  large and small mammals, birds, reptiles,
  amphibians and sometimes insects.

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Habitat Description

• The cougar was once found over much of North
  America, including southern Canada.
• Cougars are found in a variety of habitats,
  including tidal marshes, deserts, and mountainous
  terrain.
• Eastern cougars have been pretty much wiped out
  from east of the Mississippi river, with the
  exception of Florida.

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Threats to the Natural Habitat

• The biggest obstacle to the eastern cougars
  survival is the loss of undisturbed habitat.
• The decline in the availability of prey, usually
  white-tailed deer, hinder the eastern cougars
  survival.

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Predators

• Humans have hunted and trapped cougars for years.
• Humans have eliminated much of its habitat
  through extensive deforestation.

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Photo Credits

• Slide 1 Photo World Wildlife Fund South Florida
  Water Management District
• Slide 2 Photo Washington Department of Fish and
  Wildlife
• Slide 9 Photo Washington Department of Fish and
  Wildlife