The South American cougar (Puma concolor concolor) is a cougar subspecies. The cougar holds historical cultural significance amongst many South American indigenous people. People in the Andes regard it as being either a snatcher of souls or as a helper of people. The cougar's name was used for Incan regions and people. The Chankas, who were enemies of the Incas, had the cougar as their deity.
No
NocturnalNocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal",...
Hy
HypercarnivoreA hypercarnivore is an animal that has a diet that is more than 70% meat, with the balance consisting of non-animal foods such as fungi, fruits, or...
Ca
CarnivoreA carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of a...
Vi
ViviparousAmong animals, viviparity is the development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous'...
Cu
CursorialA cursorial organism is one that is adapted specifically to run. An animal can be considered cursorial if it has the ability to run fast (e.g. chee...
Te
TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Am
Ambush predatorAmbush predators are carnivorous animals that capture or trap prey by stealth, luring, or by (typically instinctive) strategies utilizing an elemen...
Te
TerritorialA territory is a sociographical area that which an animal consistently defends against the conspecific competition (or, occasionally, against anima...
Al
AltricialAltricial animals are those species whose newly hatched or born young are relatively immobile. They lack hair or down, are not able to obtain food ...
Po
PolygynyPolygyny is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male.
So
SolitaryNo
Not a migrantAnimals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
S
starts withCougars are slender and agile animals. The coloring is plain but can vary greatly across individuals, and even siblings. The coat is typically tawny, but it otherwise ranges from silvery-grey to reddish with lighter patches on the underbody, including the jaws, chin, and throat. Infants are spotted and born with blue eyes and rings on their tails; juveniles are pale and dark spots remain on their flanks. A leucistic individual was seen in Serra dos Órgãos National Park in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 when it was recorded by a camera trap, indicating that extremely rare, pure white individual cougars do exist in the species. Cougars have large paws and proportionally the largest hind legs in the Felidae, allowing for their great leaping and short-sprint ability. They are capable of leaping from the ground up to 5.5 m (18 ft) high into a tree.
South American cougars are found in northern and western South America, from Colombia and Venezuela to Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. In Colombia, they were recorded in a palm oil plantation close to a riparian forest in the Llanos Basin, and close to water bodies in the Magdalena River Valley. In the human-modified landscape of central Argentina, they live in bushland with abundant vegetation cover and prey species. In general, cougars live in all forest types, and in lowland and mountainous open areas with little vegetation.
Little is known about the behavior of South American cougars but in general, cougars are solitary animals and keep away from other individuals except during mating. Males will keep together immediately after having left their mother, but hardly ever as older adults. They are primarily nocturnal. Although capable of sprinting, cougars are typically ambush predators. They stalk through brush and trees, across ledges, or other covered spots, before delivering a powerful leap onto the back of their prey and a suffocating neck bite. The cougar is capable of breaking the neck of some of its smaller prey with a strong bite and momentum bearing the animal to the ground. The cat drags a kill to a preferred spot, covers it with a brush, and returns to feed over a period of days. Cougars communicate through visual and olfactory signals, and males will often make scrapes in the snow or soil. The noises they make include hisses, growls, and bird-like whistles.
South American cougars are hypercarnivores. They prey on a variety of species depending on their location, from birds, primates, vicuña, guanaco, deer, tapir, sloths, capybara, agouti, mara, and other rodents, frogs, lizards, and the occasional domestic livestock, such as goats, poultry, cattle, llama and alpaca. In the western and northwestern regions of South America, cougars will sometimes prey on Spectacled bear cubs. In San Guillermo National Park, the vicuña is the cougars’ main prey species and constitutes about 80% of their diet. In the more southern extremes of their range, cougars also prey on guanaco, mice, and hares.
In general, cougars have a polygynous mating system in which one male mates with more than one female during the breeding season. They can mate throughout the year. Females tend to give birth every other year, to 1-6 kittens, following a gestation period of 90-96 days. They give birth in dens lined with vegetation or moss, usually within a protected place such as a rock shelter, a pile of rocks, a crevice, a thicket, or a cave. The kittens stay with their mothers until 1-2 years old. At about 40 days they are fully weaned. Females become reproductively mature at about 2.5 years of age and males at about 3. They do not reproduce until after they have established a permanent home area.
The main threats to cougars include habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and depletion of their prey base due to poaching.
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the South American cougar total population size. According to the IUCN Red List in Brazil, it is considered Near Threatened (NT) but subspecies outside the Amazon basin are considered Vulnerable (VU). It is also considered Near Threatened (NT) in Peru, Argentina, and Colombia, and Data Deficient (DD) (inadequately known) in Chile.
As top predators cougars play a very important role in their local ecosystem. They have a role in controlling large ungulate populations.
