2. Eastern Cougar

3.  Additional Names –Puma –Mountain lion –Catamount –Panther

4. Physical Description  Adult cougars weigh an average of 140 pounds. Next to the jaguar, it is the largest North American cat.  Adult cougars are about seven feet from nose to tip of tail.  Its tail is almost as long as the body.  Its color is brown to gray.

5. Physical Description  Cougars have binocular vision; their eyes allow them to hunt both day and night.  Cougars have cup-shaped ears that move together or independently.  Cougars make a variety of sounds including chirps, peeps, purrs, screams, and growls, but they can’t roar.

6. Behaviors  Cougars can jump 15 feet high and 40 feet wide.  Cougars can climb trees and swim rivers.  Cougars are solitary hunters; they stay low to the ground and use whatever cover is around. When they get close to their prey, they explode in a sprint up to 35 miles per hour.  Cougars often kill old, weak, or sick animals.

7. Eating Habits  Cougars usually bite on the back of the neck, occasionally the throat.  Cougars generally drag their prey out of sights and try to cover it with leaves or grass.  Cougars prefer to eat deer, but will eat other large and small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and sometimes insects.

8. Habitat Description  The cougar was once found over much of North America, including southern Canada.  Cougars are found in a variety of habitats, including tidal marshes, deserts, and mountainous terrain.  Eastern cougars have been pretty much wiped out from east of the Mississippi river, with the exception of Florida.

9. Threats to the Natural Habitat  The biggest obstacle to the eastern cougars survival is the loss of undisturbed habitat.  The decline in the availability of prey, usually white-tailed deer, hinder the eastern cougars survival.

10. Predators  Humans have hunted and trapped cougars for years.  Humans have eliminated much of its habitat through extensive deforestation.

11. Photo Credits  Slide 1 Photo: World Wildlife Fund South Florida Water Management District  Slide 2 Photo: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife  Slide 9 Photo: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife