The Hunting Techniques of Mountain Lions: Masters of the Ambush

Mountain Lions (Puma concolor) are apex predators found in North America. While they’re obligate carnivores like all other felines, the exact specifics of their diets are not well known — things like how much they eat or the exact animals they prefer. Their most common prey is mule deer, but they will take down whatever they can. Mountain lions are ambush hunters who like to lie on ledges or along tree limbs and fall on their prey from above. Continue reading to discover what mountain lions eat, how they hunt, and more juicy tidbits.

How Much Do Mountain Lions Eat?

In a single meal, mountain lions, also called cougars, can eat between 20 and 30 pounds of meat, especially if they’ve recently hunted a large animal. In comparison, humans only eat around four pounds of food per day at the very most.

Mountain lions don’t always eat fresh kill. While they won’t scavenge as other animals might, they have been known to bury their prey and eat off the remains for nearly two weeks. Mountain lions primarily eat deer, but also prey on other large game like bighorn sheep and elk, and smaller mammals such as mice, turkeys, raccoons, porcupines, and rabbits.

How Do Mountain Lions Hunt?

Mountain lions are known as opportunistic hunters, which means that they’re willing to hunt nearly anything available. Rather than tracking their prey, mountain lions are likely to hide in treetops or other areas with high coverage to ambush and kill prey with a lethal bite to the spinal cord.

What Do Mountain Lions Eat?

As opportunistic feeders, mountain lions eat a variety of prey, from small rodents to larger mammals, including deer. Specifically, mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are their most common prey. While the majority of the species favors mule deer, Santa Ana’s Department of Natural Resources discovered some surprising information while tracking a mountain lion named Brokenleg. Over 15 months, Brokenleg consumed 35 badgers and 19 elk, but only 5 mule deer.

Will Mountain Lions Eat Larger Predators?

While it’s more common to find them making a quick meal out of deer, rabbits, and other smaller animals, mountain lions will occasionally kill and eat larger predators, such as coyotes and black bears. However, mountain lions don’t usually target black bears, and will only attack the larger animal when a conflict arises, most often a territorial dispute.

Are Mountain Lions Dangerous to Humans?

You’re more likely to have trouble with man’s best friend than you are with a mountain lion. While mountain lions could easily kill a human, they don’t see humans as a part of the menu and aren’t likely to attack. They also tend to avoid areas where humans live, making encounters unlikely. However, mountain lions do pose a potential threat to humans in chance encounters, though fewer than 30 human fatalities attributed to mountain lions have been documented in North America since 1868.

What Do Mountain Lion Cubs Eat?

Like all mammals, a mountain lion cub’s first food is their mother’s milk. Cubs may nurse for seven weeks before they are weaned and begin eating solid food. Until they’re able to hunt on their own, their mother will bring meat to the litter for them to eat.

Once they’re fully weaned, at around four to six months old, they’ll be able to start hunting their own prey, usually smaller animals like rabbits and skunks. As they mature and grow, they’ll be able to hunt larger prey until they’re able to easily hunt and kill deer, elk, and other common prey animals.

Top 20 List of Mountain Lion Prey

Here is a list of the 20 animals that mountain lions most often eat:

• Deer
• Coyotes
• Raccoons
• Elk
• Feral hogs
• Porcupines
• Mice
• Rabbits
• Moose
• Bighorn sheep
• Beavers
• Antelope
• Badgers
• Birds
• Marmots
• Insects
• Feral horses
• Black bears
• Caribou
• Squirrels