20 Facts About Cougars

1. Cougars roam in places they won’t be discovered. These include high up mountains and forested areas. They will prefer to avoid humans, unless they feel threatened. Then they may choose to attack.

2. The cougar is the second largest big cat in North and South America. The jaguar comes in first, but the cougar has a much larger population. It can live farther north than the jaguar. All the way from the southern Andes mountain range to Yukon, Canada.

3. If a cougar attacks you, you must fight back. There’s no playing dead, as you would with a grizzly bear. A cougar will eat you even if you’re dead, so fight back as if your life depends on it (because it probably does).

4. A cougar can run 56 kilometers per hour. This is why you should never try to outrun a cougar. You can’t. They’re agile, strong animals that can bound up to nine meters in one bound.

5. The cougar has more than 40 different names, as it spans such a vast region. It holds the Guinness record for most names for an animal. The most popular are mountain lion, puma, and even Florida panther (which is actually a sub-species). What deadly creature doesn’t Florida have?

6. The word cougar comes from word çuçuarana, in Portuguese. It was modified into cougar for the English language. The word puma means powerful in the Quechua language. It’s called a mountain lion because it looks like a lion and lives in the mountains. Makes sense.

7. Cougars have similar bodies to housecats, just much bigger. It cannot roar just like a housecat. Their round heads, pointed ears, and slender bodies are similar to your average tabby.

8. The cougar is almost always at the top of the food chain. They’ll battle with wolves and bears for food, but most of these predators won’t attack each other if easier prey is available. They all only have to worry about humans.

9. Cougars can have babies when they’re as young as two to three. They’re only in groups when the mother is raising the young. Male and female cougars only come together to mate, then the men leave to have a solitary life.

10. Cougars like to eat large mammals. These include deer, moose, horses, sheep, and goats. If they can’t get a hold of bigger, juicier prey, they will eat insects or rodents. Like Simba in the Lion King.

11. The cougar is the most widely distributed mammal in the Western Hemisphere. Everyone can find a cougar near them, from Brazil to Canada. They’re really the animal that unites the people.

12. Cougars are better at sprints than long distances. They’re muscular and compact, so they use their bursts of energy to catch their prey. If they had to run for a long time, the prey would get away.

13. Male cougars are much bigger than female cougars. The former will weigh up to 200 pounds, while the latter will weigh up to 120 pounds. Not that you’ll be able to tell the difference when one is jumping towards you!

14. Only one out of six cougar cubs will reach maturity, on average. This tragedy is a result of other animals eating them, sickness, humans, and the elements. Since female cougars only have two to three babies, they need a higher survival rate. Won’t someone save the children?

15. Cougars are born with spots! They look like baby leopards to the untrained eye. They will have black spots until they are around six months old. They are there to help camouflage them in the forest from predators.

16. Cougars don’t have the best sense of smell, so they don’t use it to hunt. Instead, they use their amazing night vision. Their eyes will glow in the dark if a light shines on them. Definitely not something you want to see on your camping trip.

17. Cougars will speak in whistles, chirps, hisses, growls, and purrs. Since they can’t roar, they must communicate in other ways. They will famously scream, which people might think are other humans in the woods.

18. Cougars will hide a part of their prey in sticks and leaves so they can finish it for later. Guess humans aren’t the only ones who save leftovers. This allows the cougar to rest up and not have to hunt for two weeks. It also allows them to stay closer to their cubs and protect them.

19. Cougars unintentionally plant trees. They mainly eat herbivores, who consume seeds. When the cougars roam and poop out the herbivores, the seeds are intact and create plants. Cougars plant over 90,000 plants every year just from pooping.

20. Cougars will stalk their prey and wait for the element of surprise. Given large mammals often have defenses like hooves or antlers, the cougar tries to not get hurt in an attack. They will use their long, hindlegs to pounce and bite them in the throat or back of the neck. This will limit any struggle the cougar would have killing their prey.