Cougar
Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)
The cougar (Puma concolor), also called puma, panther or red tiger, is a mammal in the big cats subgroup, belonging to the family Felidae and genus Puma. It is a large, terrestrial, cathemeral carnivore with an adult body mass of 51.6 kg.
Quick facts about the cougar
Its main foods include mule deer, odocoileus virginianus, cervus canadensis, moose, bighorn sheep, guanaco, rabbit and carrion.
- Weight
- 48 kg – 51.6 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 21.9 years – 23.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- american badger, beaver, bighorn sheep, bobcat, canada goose, capybara and 38 moresrc for Main food
- Habitat
- rockysrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 92 days – 96 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 2.76src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 2.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.47src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the cougar
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the cougar live?
Not recorded
What is the cougar?
The cougar ( KOO-gər; Puma concolor), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount, and panther, is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most widespread in the world. Its range spans Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, the Rocky Mountains and areas in the western United States. Further south, its range extends through Mexico to the Amazon rainforest and the southern Andes Mountains in Patagonia. It is an adaptable generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types. It prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking but also lives in open areas.
The cougar is largely solitary. Its activity pattern varies from diurnality and cathemerality to crepuscularity and nocturnality between protected and non-protected areas, and is apparently correlated with the presence of other predators, prey species, livestock and humans. It is an ambush predator that pursues a wide variety of prey. Ungulates, particularly deer, are its primary prey, but it also hunts rodents. It is territorial and lives at low population densities. Individual home ranges depend on terrain, vegetation and abundance of prey. While large, it is not always the dominant apex predator in its range, yielding prey to other predators. It is reclusive and mostly avoids people. Fatal attacks on humans are rare but increased in North America as more people entered cougar habitat and built farms.
The cougar is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Intensive hunting following European colonization of the Americas and ongoing human development into cougar habitat has caused populations to decline in most parts of its historical range. In particular, the eastern cougar population is considered to be mostly locally extinct in eastern North America since the early 20th century, with the exception of the isolated Florida panther subpopulation.
From the Wikipedia article “Cougar” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cougar&oldid=1381812438), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the cougar endangered?
The cougar is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the cougar classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCarnivora
- familyFelidae
- genusPuma
- SpeciesPuma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)
Synonyms Felis arundivaza, Felis californica, Felis concolor
Other names and names in other languages (121)
- American lionEnglish
- CatamountEnglish
- Deer killerEnglish
- Deer tigerEnglish
- Deer tigerEnglish
- Florida pantherEnglish
- Ghost walkerEnglish
- Mexican devilEnglish
- Mountain devilEnglish
- Mountain lionEnglish
- Mountain lionEnglish
- Mountain ScreamerEnglish
- PainterEnglish
- PanterEnglish
- PantherEnglish
- PumaEnglish
- PumaEnglish
- Purple featherEnglish
- Red tigerEnglish
- Red tigerEnglish
- BergleeuAfrikaans
- የተራራ አንበሣAmharic
- كوجرArabic
- أسد الجبالArabic
- bexookeeArapaho
- ПумаAvaric
- KougarBalinese
- কুগারBangla
- tukwetchl
- ᏢᏓᏥCherokee
- ᏨᏓᏥCherokee
- Nanóse'hameCheyenne
- q̕ə́wic̕əpclm
- KaguárCzech
- Horský levCzech
- KuguárCzech
- Puma americkáCzech
- PwmaWelsh
- KuguarGerman
- BerglöweGerman
- SilberlöweGerman
- ΠούμαGreek
- ΚούγκαρGreek
- Λιοντάρι της ΑμερικήςGreek
- PumoEsperanto
- LionSpanish
- Gato MonteSpanish
- León AmericanoSpanish
- léon americanoSpanish
- León BayoSpanish
- léon bayoSpanish
- León campa o CambaSpanish
- León coloradoSpanish
- léon coloradoSpanish
- león de montanaSpanish
- León De MontañaSpanish
- LeopardoSpanish
- MitzliSpanish
- onza bermejaSpanish
- Onza vermelhaSpanish
- PumaSpanish
- Tigre coloradoSpanish
- PuumaEstonian
- شیر کوهیPersian
- Fjalla-leyvurFaroese
- Lion de montagneFrench
- CúgarIrish
- PùmaScottish Gaelic
- JaguapytãGuarani
- פומהHebrew
- פומת ההריםHebrew
- कूगरHindi
- Tohohop
- ՊումաArmenian
- Singa gunungIndonesian
- PumaoIdo
- FjallaljónIcelandic
- CoguaroItalian
- Leone di montagnaItalian
- ピューマJapanese
- პუმაGeorgian
- Izem n idurarKabyle
- ಕೂಗರ್Kannada
- 쿠거Korean
- 팬서Korean
- 퓨마Korean
- 마운틴 라이언Korean
- KûgarKurdish
- swəwaʔlut
- КагуарMacedonian
- Планински лавMacedonian
- പൂമMalayalam
- प्युमाMarathi
- KaccvMuscogee
- ကူဂါBurmese
- Bí-chiu-saiMin Nan Chinese
- NáshdóítsohNavajo
- FjelløveNorwegian Bokmål
- PoemaDutch
- mishibizhiiOjibwa
- ਕੂਗਰPunjabi
- Puma płowaPolish
- کوگارWestern Panjabi
- JaguarunaPortuguese
- Leão-baioPortuguese
- Onça-de-BodePortuguese
- Onça-pardaPortuguese
- SuçuaranaPortuguese
- PumăRomanian
- KugariAlbanian
- Luani i malitAlbanian
- PanteraAlbanian
- Bêpende m’betisrm
- Simba-milimaSwahili
- เสือพูมาThai
- เสือพูม่าThai
- КугуарUkrainian
- Báo sư tửVietnamese
- Hilí∙ƷaWasho
- 美洲獅Cantonese
- 美洲狮Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the cougar
Other species in the same family Felidae.
Lion
Panthera leo
Tiger
Panthera tigris
Leopard
Panthera pardus
Cheetah
Acinonyx jubatus
Snow leopard
Panthera uncia
Jaguar
Panthera onca
CompareCougar vs LionCougar vs TigerCougar vs LeopardCougar vs Cheetah
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is a cougar?
The cougar is a mammal in the big cats subgroup, classified in the order Carnivora and the family Felidae.
How heavy is a cougar?
An adult cougar has a body mass of 51.6 kg, which places it in the large size class (25 to 250 kg).
What does a cougar eat?
The cougar is a carnivore. Its main foods include mule deer, moose, bighorn sheep, guanaco, capybara, beaver, rabbit, wild turkey and carrion.
Is the cougar endangered?
No. The IUCN Red List classifies the cougar as Least Concern in its global assessment, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a cougar live?
The cougar has a lifespan of 21.85 years, with values up to 23.8 years reported.
Who named the cougar?
The cougar was named Puma concolor by (Linnaeus, 1771).
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Cougar (Puma concolor). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/cougar
“Cougar (Puma concolor).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/cougar.
@misc{cougar_2026,
title = {Cougar (Puma concolor)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/cougar},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}