OutdoorNebraska

F ew animals spark debate like Puma concolor. People can't even agree on what to call it – monikers include cougar, mountain lion, puma and catamount. Most experts, including Nebraska Game and Parks furbearer and carnivore program manager Sam Wilson, agree on some basic attributes. Here's what the evidence shows on some widely discussed and often misunderstood topics concerning cougar behavior. Cougars spend most of the day conserving energy at rest but by nature are wanderers, moving nocturnally and traveling most frequently at dusk and dawn. While females with kittens usually stay within a few miles of their young, other adults – especially males – have been known to relocate at a distance of 20 miles in one night. Home ranges vary from as little as 21 square miles among females to 350 square miles or more with males. In July 2011, officials confirmed that a mountain lion killed by automobile in Connecticut had trekked more than 1,500 miles from the Black Hills of South Dakota. While most cougar litters are born in late spring or summer, a female cougar can go into estrus at any time of year and therefore will mate and give birth during any month. Cougars are least likely to have dependent young during winter and early spring according to research from South Dakota. Litters, which usually consist of 2-3 kittens, are born after a three-month gestation period. The kittens disperse between 1½ to 2 years of age. The dispersing "transients," as they're known, are the most likely cougars to have encounters with humans. These young cats are notorious for stumbling into danger, and are frequently killed by resident adult males of their own species in territorial quarrels. Cougar populations are always in flux with births and deaths and lions moving in or out of a region. The population in the Pine Ridge and other parts of Nebraska is simply an extension on the eastern edges of a greater mountain lion population (of tens of thousands of animals) stretching from the northern Plains states of Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. At any given time, there are several hundred lions in Wyoming and South Dakota that are within a normal dispersal distance of Nebraska's populations. Cougars are considered to be hypercarnivores. While they will eat grass as a means to rid parasites and hair from their digestive tracts, they most frequently feed on animals, especially deer. They also eat elk, bighorn sheep and numerous smaller animals, a favorite being porcupine. The amount of prey they kill varies. Research with GPS tracking technology has shown that each female cougar without kittens require a deer or the equivalent every 16 days. A female cougar with three 15-month-old kittens may require a deer every three days. The standard estimate is about a deer (or deer-sized meal) a week per adult mountain lion. Cougars' effect on an ungulate herd, such as deer, is largely determined by the overall health of the potential prey's population and the availability of alternate prey. Cougars are highly efficient predators and have become feared by many humans. Cougars present a very small threat to humans – smaller than most realize. There have been three human mortalities in North America as a result of interactions with mountain lions since 2000, fewer deaths than from any of the following causes: dog attacks, snakes bites, lightning strikes, and bee stings. Research has shown that cougars predominantly seek prey chosen from learned behavior and avoid others. ■ Sources: Nebraska Game and Parks Commission; Behavior of North American Mammals, a Peterson Reference Guide, authored by Mark Elbroch and Kurt Rinehart; and Managing Cougars in North America, edited by Jonathan Jenks. Cougar Life An adult cougar takes its own picture walking through a camera trap at night in the Black Elk Wilderness in western South Dakota. By Justin Haag PHOTO BY MICHAEL FORSBERG Mountain Lions in Nebraska • Nebraska Game and Parks Commission 7

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