What's the Difference Between Cougars, Pumas, and Mountain Lions?

Although there can be small differences, all of these are local names for the same species of cat, Puma concolor. Learn about them in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/cougar-vs-mountain-lion.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lauren
Vogelbotan here. The cougar holds one of the Guinness World
Records for having the most names. It's referred to as
the puma, panther, mountain cat, mountain, lion, mountain screamer, painter,

(00:22):
and catamount, just to list a few. The cougar has
more monikers than almost any other living mammal, around forty
in English alone. That's because the name used for this
animal depends on its location, and there are a lot
of those across the Americas. Cougars have a fast and

(00:43):
powerful muscular body, a sharp eyesight and keen hearing, as
well as the ability to swim, climb trees, and jump
long distances. This adaptability means cougars can be found thriving
in many varied habitats, from these southern Andes and South
America to the Yukon in Canada, and everywhere from forests

(01:04):
to deserts. The different names evolved from local peoples around
the Inca Empire on the western coast of what's now
South America. The animal was called a puma. The Guarinee
peoples from further east had a word that I'm not
sure of the pronunciation of that eventually became cougar when
Europeans arrived. A panther roots from an ancient Greek term

(01:28):
for mid sized cats and mountain lion was probably coined
by Spanish colonizers, who labeled the animal both lyons meaning
lion and ghetto monte, meaning cat of the mountain. No
matter what you call the cougar, however, it is still
the same cat, a species name puma con color. It's

(01:48):
the largest of these small cat species. There are some
slight differences in populations of cougars from different areas because
of their local climate, diet, and physical environment. For the
article this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke
with Charlie Jasper, who at the time was a property
security consultant around Los Angeles. He explained there are no

(02:13):
significant differences other than vernacular taxonomy. If you will, Panthers
in Florida and the southeastern United States, like most creatures there,
tend to be a little smaller. If you compare a
Carolinian white tailed deer with its equivalent up in Maine,
it's like looking at a labordoodle versus a wolf. In general,

(02:33):
most Cougars have slender bodies with somewhat round heads and
erect ears, and display a solid tawny colored coat, which
is how they got the name con color, with whitish
fur along their belly and slightly darker hair along their
back and around their ears, muzzle, paws, and at the
tip of their tail. In humid ecosystems, the animals tend

(02:54):
to be darker and reddish brown, while those living in
colder regions have a silvery gray coat that's thicker and longer.
Cougars are powerfully built, with large paws, retractable claws, and
sharp carnivore teeth. The hind legs are more muscular than
the fore legs, which enables them to jump over fifteen

(03:15):
feet or about five meters up or down trees or mountains.
Cougars have a flexible spine, much like that of a cheetah,
which allows them to maneuver and change directions abruptly. Adults
can grow up to about five to nine feet long,
including some two to three feet of tail. That's about
one and a half to three meters total. With up

(03:36):
to a meter of tail, they might weigh anywhere from
sixty five to two hundred and twenty pounds that's thirty
to one hundred kilos, with male cougars being larger and
heavier than female cougars. That is a lot of cat
and they are apex predators, so they should be considered dangerous,
though attacks on humans are extremely rare with many predators.

(04:01):
A cougar may attack if cornered, if a fleeing human
stimulates a cougar's instinct to chase, or if a person
plays dead and seems like an easy target. In the
case of an attack, you're looking to make yourself seem
larger and more menacing with intense eye contact, a slow
waving of raised arms, loud but calm shouting, and even

(04:22):
throwing stones or sticks in the animal's direction to encourage
it to retreat. You can back away slowly, but don't
turn your back. If you live in an area with cougars,
keep a close watch on pets and be sure to
teach children to respect and avoid wild animals. The cougar
is a carnivore, which means it requires meat in its

(04:44):
diet and it will eat any animal it can catch,
from insects to large hoofed animals. Its primary prey are
various deer species, including mule deer, white tailed deer, elk,
and even moose, while other food bases can include larger
wild or domestic animals like goats, sheep, horses, cattle, lama,

(05:05):
and alpaca, of various rodents like porcupines, rabbits and capabera, weasels, birds,
and even semi aquatic life like sea lions and seals.
And Jasper said they'll go after other predators too to
reduce competition and feed themselves to boot. When cougars attack,

(05:25):
they usually employ a characteristic neck bite. In larger prey,
they attempt to position their teeth between the vertebra and
into the spinal cord, resulting in a fatal injury. They're
capable of breaking the neck of some of their smaller
prey with a strong bite. Kills are generally estimated at
around one large mammal every two weeks, while female cougars

(05:47):
raising their young may kill every three days. The cat
commonly drags a kill to a preferred spot, covers it
with brush, and returns to feed over several days. The
cougar wich generally is a non scavenger, meaning it rarely
consumes prey that it hasn't killed. Of the twenty subspecies
of cougar, three are considered endangered, the Florida panther, the

(06:12):
Eastern puma, and the Costa Rican puma. Cougar populations have
historically been hunted out of fear of the animals killing
rancher's livestock, but with human populations continuing to expand into
the animal's habitat, it's likely that there will be increased
human animal conflict that may necessitate continued protection. Today's episode

(06:37):
is based on the article What's the Difference between a
Mountain Lion and a Cougar? On how Stuffworks dot Com
written by Wendy Bowman and brain Stuff is production of
by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts from
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