Cougar (Puma concolor)
Tagging on to last week’s reported cougar sighting in Eagle Point (which is basically “just any old Tuesday” in the Illinois Valley), and our Living with Wildlife cougar tips, we thought it was time to meet one of our area’s most elusive apex predators, the cougar (Puma concolor).
While we do not recommend “Here, kitty, kitty!” when it comes to cougars, they sure do have many other names: Mountain lion, puma, panther and catamount.
Whatever name you favor (we’re all about catamount!) these big cats are both enigmatic and charismatic.
First fun fact: Cougars are the largest member of the feline fam who purr! Yup! It’s a trade-off for cats, they either purr or roar, they cannot do both.
There are four big cats who roar, lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars. With those four, the epihyal bone, part of the voice box, is replaced by a ligament. This can be stretched, creating a larger sound-producing passage and thus a wider range of pitch.
In addition to purring, cougars growl, hiss and even scream.
Crawlies ranks the cougar scream right up there with the barn owl’s shriek – both are way up on the list of “Sounds in the night which are legit bone chilling.”
If you are hiking in the woods and you hear a woman screaming, there’s a fair chance – especially in our area – that no, no you did not. You heard a cougar. Do yourself a favor and search the internet for “mountain lion screaming” videos. Good and useful sound to know.
That said, if you hear cougar screaming, to be honest it’s better than if you don’t hear a cougar screaming. If they intend to do harm, they aren’t ones to announce that in advance.
Like your housecat, cougars are stealth hunters, and their favored prey are deer. Most often they will pounce on their prey from their perch on a rock or tree overhanging a game trail, then achieve a quick, clean kill by breaking the prey’s neck.
An adult cougar will eat one deer per week. When deer aren’t available (cougars are active year-round) they will settle for smaller mammals and even reptiles and insects in a pinch.
Historically cougars were found throughout most of the United States, now Eastern populations are almost gone. Here in the West, we have a healthy population, many of those live right here in our backyards.
Currently there are just over 6,000 cougars living in Oregon, the two places with the highest densities of cougars are the Blue Mountains in the northeast and right here in the southwestern Cascades.
Of course “densities” is a relative term. Cougars aren’t by any means all packed together! An adult cougar has a 100 square-mile range – the largest of any mammal native to America.
Often cougar sightings are the result of a young cougar on the prowl to find their own 100 square-mile turf, and while they may pass through a populated area they do not want to set up their homestead in said populated area. They want peace, quiet, lots of deer and lots of cover. They put the “S” in “Solitary life.”
The exception to the lone life is a mother cougar and her cubs. Cougars can breed any time of the year but usually choose spring. Mom cougars will have litters of one to six cubs and those kiddos may stay with the mother for as long as 26 months (the “failure to launch” kits).
Typically cubs strike off on their own around 15 months of age. Because of their extended period of maternal care, cougars only breed every two years.
Final fun facts: Cougars can jump up to 18 feet from the ground into a tree. They are good swimmers when necessary, but like your house cat, they do not like getting wet. And don’t forget, they purr.
