Cougar     Puma concolor

A cougar’s eyesight is its most important sense, as befits an animal that secures most of its prey by stalking.  It is believed that they see everything as shades of gray, and have trouble negotiating stationary objects.  They are however, very sensitive to small movements.  Sense of smell is also very important to the cougar, but is not as well developed as in canines (wolves, coyotes, etc).

Cougars are very agile for their large size, and amazingly quick.  They have poor endurance, however, and can only sprint a few hundred yards before becoming winded.  A cougar will stalk its prey for a very short time before pouncing on it, giving prey very little time to escape.  Cougars also have incredible leaping abilities - An adult can leap 30 feet out in all directions, and almost 20 feet straight up, making mountain travel very easy.

With the exception of a mother with kittens, cougars are solitary.  Cougar kittens are born in late summer/early fall, and weigh 6 ounces at birth.  These spotted kittens are usually born in a secluded cave or rock overhang and are virtually undetectable by predators.  By one month old, the kittens begin to feed on meat, and start learning to hunt by the time they are 6 months old.  The kittens stay with their mother for at least a year before venturing out on their own.  Cougar mothers communicate with their kittens with a series of mews and grunts, and communicate with other cougars by growling, hissing, purring, and yowling.  Cougars do not have a large voice box and cannot "roar" like lions and tigers, which distinguishes them from the "Big" cats.

With the exception of man, cougars have no natural enemies.  Fighting may occur among male cougars competing for a female, or between a female and a male in defense of her cubs.  Cougars would much rather remain hidden than be confronted in the open, so avoidance is a primary strategy.

Settlers hunted and slaughtered cougars without restraint in the 1800’s, and nearly wiped out the entire midwestern population.  Cougars no longer live in Illinois, but healthy populations still reside in the western regions of the U.S., and in some areas of the east.

Since July of 2000 there have been a few reports of cougars in western and southern Illinois.  Before this, there was not a reported cougar sighting in Illinois for more than 100 years.