Mountain Lion

Quick Take

• The sound a mountain lion makes is nothing like what you'd expect from America's largest wild cat. Hear about their sounds →
• The mountain lions roaming North America today aren't actually native to it, and their backstory is far stranger than that. Trace their origins →
• Mountain lions silently prevent thousands of human deaths every year, and almost nobody gives them credit for it. See their ecological role →
• One Florida subspecies is teetering on the edge of extinction, and the number of survivors will shock you. Check the Florida panther numbers →

The mountain lion is a large, tan-colored cat species native to North America, Central America, and South America. In the United States, these cats live primarily in western states and Florida. Also called cougar, puma, catamount, and panther, mountain lions thrive in many habitats. They live in more geographies than any other Western Hemisphere mammal, besides humans.

4 Amazing Mountain Lion Facts

• Cry like house cats: Mountain lions do not roar; instead, they use a distinct mountain lion scream, growl, hiss, meow, and purr.
• Changing eye color: Cubs are born with blue eyes that gradually change to yellow or yellow-green, typically within the first year.
• Solitary life: These animals prefer to live alone, occupying territories that can range from about 10 to more than 370 square miles depending on the individual.
• Fast runners: They can run at speeds up to 50 miles per hour.

Evolution

Experts assert that the mountain lion’s ancestor first appeared between 5 and 9 million years ago, evolving from a common ancestor shared with the African cheetah and American jaguarundi. Several million years later, it crossed the Bering land bridge to North America. In its new home, it differentiated into different genetic strains, including those responsible for wild and domestic felines, ocelots, oncillas, lynxes, and mountain lions.

About 2 to 4 million years ago, these cats entered South America, crossing the Isthmus of Panama. However, the population of mountain lions in North America diminished, and those found there today are actually descendants that returned from South America.

Some experts believe the North American puma population eventually dwindled and that present-day cougars descended from populations that migrated back from South America.

Classification and Scientific Name

The mountain lion’s scientific name is Puma concolor, from the Quechua word puma combined with the Latin word concolor. The name Puma concolor translates to mean ‘large feline of one solid color,’ referring to the animal’s uniform coat. The big cat’s phylum is Chordata, in the class Mammalia, order Carnivora, family Felidae, and genus Puma.

Early Spanish explorers of the Americas called the cat “leon,” meaning lion, and “gato monte,” meaning mountain cat. Incas called it “puma,” while early South American Indians called it “cuguacuarana,” from which the word “cougar” comes. Most scientists prefer to call these cats “pumas.” These cats have about 40 names in the English language, including panther, puma, cougar, catamount, painter, mountain screamer, red tiger, Mexican lion, and American lion. Two subspecies together cover North America, Central America, and all regions of South America.

There are two mountain lion subspecies:

• South American cougar (Puma concolor concolor): This subspecies is found in countries that include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.
• North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar):  This subspecies lives in Canada, Central America, Florida, Mexico, and the western United States.

Appearance and Behavior

These predators look very much like oversized short-haired house cats. They have small heads with short faces. Ears are rounded and small. Their bodies are long and sleek, with long necks and tails. Their legs are powerful, suited to rapid acceleration and pouncing. Their teeth seize prey, tearing and slashing the flesh.

The average mountain lion ranges from about 3’3 in length to about 5’5″. But with their tails, some males measure as long as nine feet and females up to six feet nine inches. The cats stand between two feet and 2’6″ from the ground to their shoulders. In adulthood, females weigh from 64 to 141 pounds and males from 115 to 220 pounds. In the United States, mountain lions are most commonly tan, but throughout the Americas their color ranges from tawny to bluish gray. Their bellies, inner legs, and throats are always lighter in color, with their noses and tails having black or dark edges. Babies are born with spots to camouflage them in the wild. These spots fade at around six to nine months. Their blue eyes also change to yellow by the age of 16 months.

Mountain lions are solitary by nature. They sometimes share territory with one other puma, but prefer a 30 square mile range to call their own. Some mountain lions maintain a territory of up to 500 square miles or more. They live in habitats of all kinds in the Western Hemisphere, from mountainous regions to the swamps of Florida. Humans rarely see mountain lions, as these nocturnal, stealthy creatures prefer to remain hidden and stalk their prey. Pumas are highly intelligent and avoid humans whenever possible.

Mountain lions are at the top of the food chain. They keep deer populations in balance and even help reduce the number of vehicle accidents involving deer. Although brown bears will kill and eat mountain lions, sometimes the lions win in fights against these giant bears. Humans and domestic animals must watch out for mountain lions when crossing into their habitats. People sometimes cross their paths on hiking trails or in the wilderness.

Mountain lions’ large hind legs have greater muscle mass than their front legs. This enables them to jump 15 to 18 feet vertically and up to 40 feet horizontally while running. They run very fast, with their flexible spine allowing them to change direction and move around obstacles quickly. Their large paws keep them steady, with sharp claws for defense and attacking prey. Keen eyesight helps them find their prey.

Habitat

Mountain lions live throughout the Americas, from the Yukon of Canada to the subtropics of South America. No other American mammal, except humans, spans such a wide land range. They can live in almost any type of habitat, such as mountains, wetlands, forests, and deserts, and from sea-level areas to the highest snow-covered mountain peaks. Although they prefer 14 western states of the United States, pumas in the U.S. are also found in low numbers in Florida. These cats also roam as far as the northeastern states from time to time.

Mountain lions live in areas with dense shrubbery, undergrowth, and other plant life for cover. If they feel threatened, they leave the area. The average lifespan for a wild mountain lion is about 8 to 13 years. But in zoos, many live for 20 or more years. Because of sport hunting in some regions, the cats in those areas only live to about five years of age.

Throughout their lifetime, mountain lions prefer to live alone. Only for mating and parenting do they break this rule. They mark their territory by urinating on piles of leaves, pine needles, or grass and clawing trees. This tells other mountain lions to stay away. If another mountain lion crosses into the territory, the two will fight to their death if necessary.

Predators and Threats

The biggest threats to mountain lions are humans. These cats are apex predators, near the top of the food chain. They are sometimes killed by brown bears or as part of territory fights with other mountain lions. Mountain lions once lived from the east coast of America to the west coast. But people feared the big cats and believed them to be predators of livestock. So by the 1940s, many states paid bounties for the killing of the lions. Each pelt once brought a reward of $25 to $35. This reduced their numbers by far, restricting the cat population mostly to the western coast and a small number in Florida.

Despite laws in place to protect them in many parts of the U.S., some people still illegally trap, poison, and shoot the lions on sight. Hunting is still legal in some form in many states, such as Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Washington, and Oregon.

Diet

Mountain lions are carnivores that are apex predators across much of their environment. With the ability to blend into their surroundings, mountain lions easily prey on deer and small mammals. They eat coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, and porcupines. To preserve their killed prey and protect it from scavengers, they bury it and return to feed on it for several days.

Reproduction, Babies and Lifespan

Mountain lion females can mate with several males in one reproductive season, called estrus. Typically, the female prefers to mate with a male from an overlapping territory. The three-to-ten-day mating period is the only time males and females are seen together. Otherwise, they remain solitary animals and avoid contact. For both females and males, sexual maturity occurs at about one to 2.5 years old.

Females do not try to reproduce until they have established their own territory. Females with cubs move from one place on their territory to another every few weeks. This helps her protect the cubs from roaming males and other predators. Mating occurs throughout the year, when the female is in estrus. But most litters are born during the warm months of summer, particularly July to September. Females produce a litter every 1.5 to two years, on average. But if she loses a litter, she quickly enters estrus again. Gestation for a mountain lion is about 90 days, which is short compared to other large land animals. But it compares closely to other lions and their tiny cousins, domestic house cats.

Most litters include two to three spotted, blue-eyed cubs, sometimes called kittens. Sometimes only one or as many as four are born. By six months of age, the fur has changed to a tawny, unspotted coat like adults. Kittens nurse for three months. They start eating meat at one and a half months, then eat meat exclusively after weaning. As they grow into their adult coats at six months, they start hunting with their mother. Babies are cared for by their mother until one to two years of age, when the cubs must strike out on their own. Where hunted, such as in U.S. states that permit some hunting of mountain lions, the average lifespan for one of these cats is about five years. Left to live a natural lifespan in the wild, most live about 13 years. The average lifetime for these big cats in zoos is about 19 years, although some live beyond 20.

Population

As of 2014, the mountain lion population is listed as decreasing due to diminishing habitat, but overall stable. Overall, the species is listed as Least Concern. This is with a few exceptions, including the subspecies of Florida panthers and the now extinct eastern cougar. The eastern cougar was declared officially extinct in 2011 by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. In Florida, only 160 panthers remain.

One of the biggest problems in mountain lion conservation is the lack of clear mountain lion counts over the past decades. States and other countries are now working to establish accurate counts, as California is doing. But thousands of these cats are known to exist in the U.S., as well as throughout Central America, Canada and South America. In California, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Investigations Laboratory set a goal to determine a precise statewide mountain lion count by 2022.

Additionally, there are 15 US states that have a stable breeding population of mountain lions.