Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Cougar
Much of the cougar's arresting beauty stems from its opposite ends—its face and tail. Viewed face
on, the cougar's tan head culminates in a strikingly handsome pattern: its pink nose is surrounded by a
white muzzle, set off by vertical blackish bars at the rear. At the other end, the cougar's tail is perhaps
its chief glory. Nearly three feet long on really large specimens, this appendage, when adorned by the
cougar's winter fur, is truly majestic. Indeed, in its thick winter pelage, the cougar fully deserves to be
called magnificent.
Just how large are cougars? The heaviest recorded specimen, a male, weighed a whopping 275
pounds, but that's an obvious anomaly. Other male cougars, which are substantially heavier than fe-
males, have occasionally reached 225 to 230 pounds, but John Beecham, a cougar expert with the Idaho
Fish and Game Department, says it's extremely rare to encounter a male over 200 pounds; 130 to 150
pounds is more typical for adult males, while females tend to weigh seventy-five to ninety pounds.
As for length, big males can run seven to eight feet from nose to tip of tail. In one study, adult males
averaged just over seven feet in total length, females about six and a quarter feet. The cougar's splendid
tail accounts for between 35 and 40 percent of that total, although it often appears longer.
For reasons that aren't entirely clear, there seems to be a pervasive feeling that cougars as a species
are—depending on whose opinion one listens to—either rare, threatened, or endangered. Perhaps this
is due to the publicity given to the Florida panther
(Puma concolor coryi),
a cougar subspecies that is
genuinely endangered; after all, the image of a Florida panther on a poster or an endangered-species
stamp looks very much like any other cougar. Also, the fact that cougars are listed as endangered in the
eastern United States may lead people to think that the species overall is in deep trouble.
In truth, cougar populations in the western states and parts of western Canada have increased greatly
in the past couple of decades and seem to be thriving. But how many cougars are there? Unfortunately,
that's a very difficult question to answer. Counting cats, it turns out, is only slightly easier than the pro-
verbial task of herding them!
