biology

North American cougar

North American cougar is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand North American cougar rather than just read about it. In short: The North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is a cougar subspecies in North America. It is the biggest cat in North America, and the second largest cat in the New World.

Key takeaways

North American cougar belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect North American cougar to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of North American cougar from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is a cougar subspecies in North America. It is the biggest cat in North America, and the second largest cat in the New World. It was once common in eastern North America and is still prevalent in the western half of the continent. This subspecies includes populations in western Canada, the western United States, Florida, Mexico and Central America, and possibly South America northwest of the Andes Mountains. It thus includes the extirpated eastern cougar and extant Florida panther populations.

Taxonomic history

As of 2017, P. c. cougar was recognized as being valid by the Cat Classification Taskforce of the Cat Specialist Group. P. c. costaricensis had been regarded as a subspecies in Central America.

Description

The North American cougar has a solid tawny-colored coat without spots, though the color can vary from buff to cinnamon-brown and juveniles may have mild leftover spotting. It weighs 25–80 kg (55–176 pounds). Females average 45 kg (99 lb), about the same as a jaguar in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve on the Mexican Pacific coast.

Habitat and distribution The North American cougar lives in various places and habitats. Several populations still exist and are thriving in the western United States, Southern Florida, and western Canada, but the North American cougar was once commonly found in eastern portions of the United States. It was believed to be extirpated there in the early 1900s. In Michigan, it was thought to have been killed off and extinct in the early 1900s. There is evidence to support that cougars could be on the rise in Mexico and could have a substantial population in years to come. Some mainstream scientists believe that small relict populations may exist (around 50 individuals), especially in the Appalachian Mountains and eastern Canada. Recent scientific findings in hair traps in Fundy National Park in New Brunswick have confirmed the existence of at least three cougars in New Brunswick. The Ontario Puma Foundation estimates that there are 850 cougars in Ontario. The Quebec wildlife services also considers cougars to be present in the province as a threatened species after multiple DNA tests confirmed cougar hair in lynx mating sites. The only unequivocally known eastern population is the critically endangered Florida panther. There have been unconfirmed sightings in Elliotsville Plantation, Maine (north of Monson) and as early as 1997 in New Hampshire.

Sightings in the United States Reported sightings of cougars in the United States continue, including in locations of their former range where they are considered extirpated.

California The California Department of Fish and Game has roughly estimated 4,000 to 6,000 cougars present in California since 1972 Since 2002, more than 100 cougars have been sighted and tracked in the Santa Monica Mountains and neighboring mountains, including P-1, P-2, P-22, and P-64 In 2021, a cougar was sighted walking through a San Francisco neighborhood In 2022, a cougar was sighted at a school in Daly City Minnesota In Southern Minnesota there have been a few sightings by deer hunters; the Department of Natural Resources has verified 14 cougar sightings since 2007. Connecticut In 2011, a cougar was sighted in Greenwich, Connecticut, and later killed by an SUV in Milford after allegedly travelling 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from South Dakota. Illinois On April 14, 2008, a cougar triggered a flurry of reports before being cornered and killed in the Chicago neighborhood of Roscoe Village while officers tried to contain it. The cougar was the first sighted in the city limits of Chicago since the city was founded in 1833. On November 22, 2013, a cougar was found on a farm near Morrison in Whiteside County, Illinois. An Illinois Department of Natural Resources officer subsequently shot and killed the cougar after determining it posed a risk to the public. Michigan According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, there were fifteen confirmed cougar sightings in the state in 2020 and, as of October, there had been ten confirmed sightings in the Upper Peninsula in 2021. The Department said that the steep increase in sightings may be attributable to the proliferation of trail cameras. Tennessee On September 26, 2015, a hair sample was submitted by a hunter in Carroll County, Tennessee; DNA analysis indicated it was a female with genetics similar to cougars in South Dakota. Wisconsin Genetic analysis of DNA from a cougar sighting in Wisconsin in 2008 indicated that a cougar was in Wisconsin and that it was not a captive animal. The cougar is thought to have migrated from a native population in the Black Hills of South Dakota; however, the genetic analysis could not affirm that hypothesis. Whether other, perhaps breeding, cougars are present is also uncertain. A second sighting was reported and tracks were documented in a nearby Wisconsin community. Unfortunately, a genetic analysis could not be done and a determination could not be made. This cougar later made its way south into the northern Chicago suburb of Wilmette. On June 3, 2013, a verified sighting was made in Florence County, Wisconsin. The cougar was photographed by an automatic trail camera, and confirmed by DNR biologists in October, 2013. In December, 2020, two sightings, one verified, were made in Dane County, in and around Stoughton, Wisconsin. The cougar was photographed by an individual, and confirmed by the Wisconsin DNR. In November 2021, a DNR representative told WDJT-TV that the Department confirms about 15 cougar sightings per year in the state. While the origins of these animals are unknown, some cougar experts think some are captive animals that have been released or escaped.

Ecology

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with North American cougar

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what North American cougar claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to North American cougar before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about North American cougar ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of North American cougar

In research: North American cougar appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses North American cougar in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: North American cougar is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cougar, Fauna of California, Felidae of Central America, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for North American cougar outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study North American cougar in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what North American cougar means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain North American cougar out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is North American cougar in simple terms?

The North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar) is a cougar subspecies in North America. It is the biggest cat in North America, and the second largest cat in the New World.

Why does North American cougar matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study North American cougar?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on North American cougar.