Cole B.

Mountain Lions  

If you are interested in mountain lions, you should read this article! Here you will learn all about their habitat, diet, history, how to identify a mountain lion, and fun facts. Read on to find out more about these interesting critters.

A mountain lion’s habitat is mostly wild landscapes, such as mountains, canyons, jungles, and gullies. Most of their prey roam freely in their habitat. Their growing population in the mountains takes away their food source, so that causes them to move out of the mountains. They are mostly populated in north and south America. Roadways interrupt a mountain lion’s mating process. Many mountain lions have been killed on roadways near their home. Mountain lions have good climbing skills that allows them live in these parts of the western hemisphere.

Mountain lions have a big diet.They prey on big and small animals such as deer, porcupines, and raccoons. They are ambush hunters- that means they stalk their prey and at the right time they pounce and eat their prey. People say that a mountain lion hides up in a tree or cliff and jumps off to attack their prey. That is occasionally true.Sometimes if  a mountain lion is desperate for food they will literally jump up and down to make tree limbs fall on their prey. Mountain lions usually will not eat a human- they just attack humans if they are in their territory or near a mother with cubs.Their method of killing is a bite just below the skull.These are some facts about their diet, now let me tell you about their history.

Mountain lions have a very long ranging history. Mountain lions have been around for 40,000 years. They walked across the tiny strip of land that we call earth. Mountain lions were an Indian myth but when the pilgrims came, they were considered game. The mountain lion was exterminated from Mississippi in the 1900’s. They used to have a small  population in Florida known as the “Florida panther.” Today they are found in 14 western states. They are British Columbia, Canada, southern Chile and Argentina, and from coast to coast in North America.

Now, I will teach you how to identify a mountain lion. You may mistake a fox, bobcat, bear, and a jaguar for a mountain lion. the picture above shows a mountain lion and a bobcat...can you see a difference? A mountain lion usually weighs between 75 to 175 pounds. A mountain lion is similar to a short-haired house cat. They have a pretty small head- not like any wild cat except for a cheetah. they also have a shortened face, small rounded ears, long body, and a long neck and tail. A mountain lion sounds like a house cat when it growls. Mountain lions can be as large as jaguars. They have black tipped ears and tail. Mountain lions are mostly tawny colored. Their tail is 2 to 3 feet long. I hope you learned a lot about how to spot a mountain lion.

Here are some awesome paw facts. Did you know that mountain lions can only see in black and white and mountain lions do not have a good sense of smell? Did you know that a mountain lion can jump 40 feet in the air? There are over 30,000 mountain lions in the western United states. Did you know that mountain lions breed at 3 years old? Did you know that a mountain lions can’t growl. They are North America’s largest wild cat? Last but not least, the cougar also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount, or panther, depending on the region, holds the Guinness world record for the animal with the highest number of names. Can you believe that it has over 40 names in English? Aren't those some awesome paw facts?

Mountain lions are some very interesting critters. From their crazy diet, to their awesome habitats, to those sweet fun facts, I hope you agree that they are a really cool critter.