The cougar goes by different names in different places. In California, people call them mountain lions. Across western North America, they are cougars. In Florida, they are panthers. In Mexico, Central and South America, they are pumas. All of these are names for one animal, so a puma and a mountain lion are not different animals. About 40 English names have been listed for the cougar, including puma, mountain lion and catamount. The cougar is known by more names than almost any other mammal.

As of November 2026, the cougar's range runs from British Columbia in Canada through the US and Central and South America to the southern tip of Chile. The cougar has the largest range of any wild land mammal in the Western Hemisphere. Cougars live in many kinds of places, including deserts and forests.

As of November 2026, Florida panthers occur in peninsular Florida, primarily south of Orlando. Florida panthers are solitary, except for females with kittens, and tend to be most active between dusk and dawn. Mature male Florida panthers examined in the wild since 1978 have weighed from 102 to 154 pounds, and females 50 to 108 pounds.

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). In the Animal Diversity Web, adult male cougars have a head and body length of 1020 to 1540 mm and females 860 to 1310 mm. A big male cougar can be more than eight feet long from nose to tail tip.

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, and zoos report that a cougar can reach up to 50 miles per hour in a sprint.

A cougar hunts mainly deer, but its diet depends on where it lives and what is there. A cougar typically makes a large catch every 7 to 10 days. A female with kittens may hunt as often as every 3 days.

A cougar stalks its food quietly before it leaps, and 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 can hear very high-pitched sounds.

The National Park Service says mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains are territorial and have a range up to 200 square miles. It also says the range of a mountain lion may cover 25 to 785 square miles.

Cougar kittens are born with spots. A cougar's spots fade as it grows and are almost gone by age 1. A mother cougar gives birth to her kittens in a den. A typical cougar litter is two to four kittens. A newborn cougar kitten weighs about one pound, and its eyes are blue when it is born.

Cougar kittens are cared for by their mother for up to two years. Young cougars then leave their mother and go off to find a territory of their own.

Words to know

• solitary: alone
• prey: hunted animals
• stalks: sneaks up
• ambushes: springs out
• territorial: guarding an area