Animalia Life

Mountain lions, also known as American lions, catamounts, cougars, deer tigers, Florida panthers, and pumas, are classified in the genus Felis with small cats because they share a solid epihyal bone that restricts their ability to roar. Mountain lions purr and during mating emit harsh, frightening screams. Among American felines they are second in size only to the jaguar. Adult male mountain lions weigh from eighty to over two hundred pounds, and are often nine feet long fromnose to tip of tail, and up to thirty inches high at the shoulder. Females are about a third less in size. Cats in the equatorial regions are smaller and have thinner coats than those in the extreme north and south of the mountain lion range. Mountain lion coats are uniform in color, varying from reddish bronze to brownish yellow or gray, with black markings around the mouth and eyes and on the tip of the tail. Kittens are born spotted, but these marks soon fade. Thirty subspecies of mountain lions, varying slightly in head shape, coat color, and size, occupy separate geographic regions.

Behavior
Kittens remain with their mothers for eighteen months to two years. Otherwise, mountain lions live solitary lives. Each female has a distinct hunting range; where such areas intersect, cats avoid each other. Males hunt over much larger tracts, sometimes covering hundreds of square miles. Each territory overlaps several female ranges, which the males check frequently for breeding opportunities. Older males face challenges from younger cats seeking to establish their own territories. Mountain lions are nocturnal or crepuscular hunters; they are almost invisible when silently stalking their victims in dim light. Except for mothers and kittens, there are few reports of cats aiding each other during hunting. Deer are the major prey in North America, capybara and peccary the preferred quarry in equatorial America. When larger animals are unavailable, mountain lions eat rodents, rabbits, and beaver. Blending into their surroundings, cats creep slowly toward intended prey, closing with a furious forty-five mile per hour rush, sometimes leaping as much as forty feet to surprise their target. Sharp claws hold victims, as canine teeth sever their spinal column or windpipe. Powerful jaws, containing scissorslike carnassials and tongues with rasplike papillae, permit cats to harvest every speck of meat from their prize.

Relations with Humans
Native Americans, carrying carved cat images as fetishes, revered the mountain lion as the greatest of all hunters. Native rituals used lion skins and paws to ensure hunting success. Europeans were less respectful, treating big cats as dangerous vermin to be destroyed. From the seventeenth century through much of the twentieth century, governments offered bounties for lion skins. Humans were the only species consistently preying upon adult mountain lions. Hunters set iron traps, dug pits, and used dogs to chase and tree the cats. As expanding human settlement made wild prey scarce, mountain lions found cattle, sheep, and horses irresistible. The cats tended to avoid humans, but rare attacks and killings frightened people and led to calls for the cats' extermination. John James Audubon noted that by the 1840's, man had nearly eliminated mountain lions east of the Mississippi. By 1900, few mountain lions existed in North America east of the Rocky Mountain states. Attitudes toward mountain lions began changing in the last decades of the twentieth century. Laws in western states banned or strictly limited hunting. However, as human intrusion into the mountain lion's habitat increased, cats occasionally attacked solitary hikers, joggers, and skiers, stimulating calls for removal of the predators.With great effort and expense, conservationists maintain a relict population of some seventy Florida panthers (Felis concolor coryi) in southwest Florida- a subspecies originally ranging from Louisiana to Florida. In Central and South America, where significant populations of mountain lions remain, destruction of habitat by expanding settlement has greatly reduced surviving numbers. Outside Florida, mountain lions are not technically an endangered species, but their long-term future remains precarious.

Mountain Lion Facts

Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Bilateria
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Eutheria
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae (cats)
Genus and species: Felis concolor
Subspecies: F. c. cougar (eastern cougar), F. c. coryi (Florida cougar)
Geographical location: Original rangewassouthern British Columbia to the Straits of Magellan and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
Habitat: Mountains, forests, deserts, and jungles
Gestational period: About three months
Life span:Upto twelve years in the wild, twenty or more years in captivity
Special anatomy: Large eyes with excellent night vision; jaws adapted to seizing and gripping prey, teeth designed for tearing and slicing flesh

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