Let us start with the names. The cougar is also called the mountain lion, the puma and the panther. You may have heard that these are different animals. They are all names for the cougar. About 40 English names have been listed for the cougar, including puma, mountain lion and catamount. In Florida, cougars are called Florida panthers.

Now let us see where cougars live. Cougars live from the Yukon in Canada south to the southern tip of Chile. Cougars live in many kinds of places, including deserts and forests. The cougar has the largest range of any wild land mammal in the Western Hemisphere. You may have heard that cougars live only in the mountains of the western United States. In fact, cougars live in many kinds of places across the Americas.

How big is a cougar? Adult male cougars typically weigh between 115 and 220 pounds (52 to 100 kilograms). Adult female cougars weigh from about 29 to 64 kilograms (about 64 to 141 pounds). A big male cougar can be more than eight feet long from nose to tail tip. Zoos report that a cougar can reach up to 50 miles per hour in a sprint.

Now let us see how a cougar hunts. Cougars mostly eat large animals such as deer and elk. A cougar hunts mainly deer, but its diet depends on where it lives and what is there. Cougars are generally solitary hunters. A cougar stalks its food quietly before it leaps. A cougar must get close to its prey before it ambushes from a short distance. Cougars have especially keen eyesight, and they see better than people in dim light.

A cougar is built to leap. A cougar can leap about 18 feet (5.5 meters) straight up. A cougar can leap about 40 feet along the ground in a single bound. Some people think that cougars roar like lions. A cougar can purr but cannot roar.

Now let us meet the kittens. Cougar kittens are born with spots. A newborn kitten weighs about one pound, and it has blue eyes. A cougar's spots fade as it grows and are almost gone by age 1. A mother cougar has one to six kittens in a litter, and she gives birth to them in a den.

Cougar kittens are cared for by their mother for up to two years. Young cougars leave their mother and go off to find a territory of their own. Mountain lion home ranges vary in size from 30 to 125 square miles.

Words to know

• prey: hunted animals
• ambushes: springs out
• stalks: sneaks up
• territory: an animal's area
• litter: kittens born together
• catamount: a cougar