Hear our purrs, hisses, snarls, calls, and growl sounds HERE They purr like the domestic cats, and during estrus, the females give off loud, hair-raising screams. Their vocalizations include growls, hisses, and bird-like whistles. They communicate by the use visual and olfactory signals, and the males regularly make scrapes in the soil or snow. Social System and Communication: Cougars are solitary cats and will avoid other individuals except for during mating. At Big Cat Rescue one cougar lived to one month shy of 30 years. In captivity, cougars have lived over 20 years, as compared to 8 – 10 in the wild. The may remain reproductive until 12 years of age for females, and 20 years for males. They will not begin to reproduce until they have established themselves a permanent home area. Females reach sexual maturity around 2.5 and males around 3 years. The kittens will remain with their mothers until they are 1-2 years old, and after separating, siblings will remain together for another 2-3 months. They will continue to nurse for 3 or more months, but will begin to take meat at 6 weeks. Kittens weigh approximately 7-16 ounces at birth, and have spotted coats until they are around 6 months old. Mothers give birth to their young in dens that are lined with moss or vegetation, usually in rock shelters, crevices, piles of rocks, thickets, caves, or some other protected place. Females tend to reproduce every other year, and give birth to litters of 1 – 6 (usually 2-3) cougar kittens after a gestation of 90-96 days. Reproduction and Offspring: There is no fixed mating season, but in North America, the majority of births occur between late winter and early spring. Also south Texas, Louisiana, south Alabama, Tennessee, and peninsular Florida. Habitat: The cougar thrives in montane, coniferous forests, lowland tropical forests, swamps, grassland, dry brush country, or any other area with adequate cover and prey.ĭistribution: Western North America from British Columbia and south Alberta south through west Wyoming to California and west Texas. They are powerfully built, and the hind legs are larger than the front. They have a long body with a small head, short face, and a long neck and tail. Weight can vary greatly, between 75 and 250 pounds. They vary in length from 59 – 108 inches with a tail length of 21 – 36 inches, and height from 23 – 28 inches at the shoulder. Notice there are four toes (5 on a bear, 4 on a wolf/dog), and the main pad has two lobes at the top.Size and Appearance: The cougar is the largest cat in the genus “felis”, and is comparable in size as the leopard. As a scale, my four fingers are 3.5 inches across. I took these pictures recently to show the size of an average cougar paw (sadly this was a road-killed mature female near my home in Bellingham, WA). People often underestimate the size of cougar tracks, and it can be difficult to differentiate dog/wolf from cougar. When you are out on the trail it’s often tough to identify tracks of various animals ahead of you. in Washington State we call them cougars, in Arizona they call them mountain lions The best source of information on tracking NW wildlife – Dave Moskowitz’s wonderful book Also, the main pad has 2 lobes at the top – sometimes tough to tell though A picture I took in Arizona recently showing track sizes. My hand next to the front paw of a cougar (I have large hands) My hand on top of front paw Notice – four toes, and the claws are usually not visible on a cat track (unless heading down hill or moving fast).