Mountain Lions (Puma concolor)
Natural History, Ecology, & Management:
Also known as puma, panther, catamount, and cougar, mountain lions are the second largest cat in North America. Adult males weigh between 110 and 180 pounds and are 6 to 8 feet long; females weigh between 80 to 130 pounds and are 5 to 7 feet long.
Lions drive ecosystem processes from the "top down." Pumas modulate their prey and indirectly affect herbivory on plant communities. Because pumas require large, connected habitats, they are an "umbrella" species. If we conserve them, we protect the myriad of plants and animals that fall under that vast space that large-ranging carnivores require.
Mountain lions, an obligate carnivore, occur in low densities because their mobile food supply-usually large ungulates such as deer or elk-is patchily distributed across arid western landscapes. Mountain lions prefer deer or elk but will snack on smaller prey like rabbits. They cache food they cannot consume in one session by covering the carcass with tree litter, grass, or snow. Lions usually hunt at dawn and dusk.
Lions stalk and ambush their prey (unlike wolves or coyotes which "course"-meaning they run to find and chase down their prey). Mountain lions require vegetative cover or rugged topography from which to hide and stalk their prey, but enough room to chase down and capture their prey. This limits lion-appropriate hunting spaces.
Females become sexually mature after 2 years of age. On average, they give birth to 2 or 3 kittens every other year. Capable of giving birth year round, most females produce kittens in the summer and fall months. Their sole provider, mothers, teach kittens survival skills. In non-hunted populations, kittens can die from cannibalism (by toms not their sire), predation, starvation, disease, or accidents.
Liberated from their mothers between 10 and 18 months, sub-adult lions attempt to stake out their own home ranges. While searching for a territory, young lions can be killed by other lions or humans (intentionally- from hunting or unintentionally-from vehicle collisions). Although females' home ranges may overlap, males' do not. Males generally do not tolerate other cats in their home ranges. Strife between them contributes to mortalities. The size of a home range is dependent upon food density, landscape features, and season.
Except when females are breeding or when they have dependent kittens, mountain lions are solitary.
Except for humans, mountain lions were historically the most wide-ranging mammal in the Western Hemisphere; humans have significantly reduced their range, and in the past 20 years, sport hunters have killed significantly more mountain lions.
In the U.S., most lions now live in the Intermountain West. A few animals have dispersed eastward. Small, fragmented populations live in South Dakota's Black Hills and in Florida (the endangered black panther).
Most human-caused mountain lion mortalities in Colorado stem from hunting. In the past 10 years, sport hunters have killed 3,703 mountain lions, which represent 91% of the total causes of mortality. In that same timeframe, sport hunters killed 1,649 females, or 45% of the total hunter kill.
During the legal hunting season for mountain lions, approximately half of the breeding females will have the young-of-the-year. If the females are killed by sport hunters, young kittens will starve and die.
Photo: The real deal in Yellowstone. Dave Jones. Copyright 2005.
