Description of a Puma Cat

The felis concolor or puma cat is the fourth-largest species of cat on earth and is second only to the jaguar in size among American big cats. Indigenous to the New World, its territory extends from Cape Horn to Canada. The puma is known by a wide variety of labels in popular culture including cougar, deer tiger, mountain lion, American lion, cantamount, panther, Mexican lion and painter.

  1. Size and appearance

    • Pumas are characterized by fur in colors that run from yellow to brown with black stripes near the eyes and mouth. A full-grown male puma is comparable in size to a human, weighing as much as 200 pounds and reaching six feet in length with as much as three feet added by its tail. Females weigh up to 120 pounds.

    Other features

    • Pumas have rounded ears, rather than pointed or tufted ones like its feline cousins, the lynx and bobcat. At birth they have spotted coats which do not persist into adulthood. They have retractable claws on feet with four toes.

    Range

    • Though it was once spread throughout both continents, hunting, elimination of food sources and deforestation have decimated the cat's population. Of 32 different subspecies of the puma, two are thought to be extinct and three others are endangered. Outside of Florida, pumas no longer exist in the eastern United States, however puma numbers have recovered in recent years and some populations are on the rise.

    Food

    • Pumas are solitary predators and will hunt a wide variety of prey ranging from raccoons to moose; however, deer is their usual meal of choice. One of the reasons for the decline in puma populations after the arrival of humans was the latter's extensive hunting of deer. Pumas are adept at both climbing and jumping and can surprise their quarry by pouncing from a tree limb and attacking with sharp, retractable claws. Pumas tend to attack at the neck for a quick, clean kill, which can be distinguished from messier attacks by dogs or coyotes. Pumas generally do not prey on human beings.

    Other facts

    • Pumas have a natural lifespan of about a dozen years. North American pumas are thought to have originated in South America about 200,000 to 300,000 years ago but pumas themselves are thought to date back as much as eight million years when they evolved from a common ancestor of the cheetah. A puma can jump as far as 18 feet. Females usually give birth every two years after a gestation period of three months. The animals begin to consume meat within weeks of birth and can hunt at about nine months old.