The cougar, also known as the American golden cat, is similar in size to the leopard, but has no patterns and a smaller skull. The cougar has a total length of nearly 2 meters, a shoulder height of 65 cm, and a weight of 30 to 110 kg. It is the largest in the cat subfamily. From the name, it is easy to think that they are a kind of lion living in the Americas. In fact, this is a wrong perception. The real cougar is only distributed in Asia and Africa.
Cougars are not lions, and they are even distantly related. The lion is a species in the subfamily Panthera, while the cougar is a species in the subfamily Feline. Although they are not the same species, they are similar in some ways. For example, when they are in the cub stage, whether it is a cougar or a lion, there are dark spots on their bodies. These spots will gradually fade as they grow until they cannot be easily detected by the naked eye.
Mountain lions inhabit a variety of environments except tropical rain forests, are good at climbing and jumping, and are active all day. Cougars like to live alone. Cougars mainly feed on wild animals such as rabbits, sheep, and deer, and also steal livestock and poultry when they are hungry. If cougars catch more prey, they hide leftovers in trees and eat them later when they come back.
Many scientists have found that cats are very lonely. They don't hunt in packs, always fighting alone. But it's not as we've seen, cougars aren't alone. It's just having different social groups than us, with their own unique hierarchy.
Cougars are solitary animals, and it stands to reason that solitary animals have almost zero sociality, but researchers have found more than once that cougars are socially developed. When cougars eat, they share food. Generally speaking, solitary animals like to feed on their own and are hostile to approaching strangers, but the cougar is completely different. When cougars eat, allow other members of their species to eat together. This is a high spirit of sharing. We must know that when food is in short supply, this sharing behavior of cougars will allow the population to survive better.
Mountain lions often live together in valleys and jungles, and especially like to move on trees. They have a strong jumping ability and can jump up to 9 meters. In the Americas, they are second only to the jaguar, but have a docile disposition. Under normal circumstances, it does not actively attack people, but when people attack it, it will fight the attacker for self-defense. In the Americas, some people will catch the little cougar for domestication. When they grow up, they can also live in peace with cats and dogs, and cougars will also guard doors like dogs, so they have won the reputation of "friends of mankind".
Due to the adaptability of pumas to the environment and other reasons, their numbers are very large. Except for humans, there is no animal in the wild that can prey on adult pumas, so there is no need to worry about them being in danger of extinction in a short time.
