Cougar

The Cougar (Puma concolor), also Puma and Mountain lion, is a New World mammal of the Felidae family. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any mammal in the Western Hemisphere,^[2] extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the Cougar is found in every major New World habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the New World, after the Jaguar, and the fourth heaviest in the world, after the Tiger, Lion, and Jaguar, although it is most closely related to smaller felines.

A capable stalk-and-ambush predator, the Cougar pursues a wide variety of prey. Its primary food is deer, particularly in the northern part of its range, but it hunts species as small as insects and rodents, as well as large ungulates. It prefers habitats with dense underbrush for stalking, but it can live in open areas.

The Cougar is territorial and persists at low population densities, with individual territory sizes dependent on terrain, vegetation, and prey abundance. While a large predator, it is not always the dominant species in its range, competing with other animals such as wolves and humans for prey such as white-tailed deer. It is a reclusive cat and usually avoids people; attacks on humans are rare, with 9 known fatalities of humans in North America in the last 110 years ^[3], with attacks increasing more recently.^[4]

Due to persecution as a dangerous pest animal that would sometimes prey on livestock during the European colonization of the Americas, and continuing human development of Cougar habitat, populations have dropped in many parts of its historical range. In particular, the Cougar was thought to be extirpated in eastern North America, with the exception of an isolated Florida sub-population; the animal may be recolonizing parts of its former eastern territory. DNA evidence ^[5] has confirmed its existence in eastern North America, which supports many sightings and footprint evidence collected in recent years. ^[3]