How long cougar live

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Normally a silent hunter, the cougar, like any cat, becomes vocal during the breeding season. Females in heat yowl. The cougar occupies a wide range of vegetation types. Cover is probably the key habitat feature for a cougar since it is important for stalking prey, establishing den sites, and camouflage.

Within their home range, cougars establish territories which they defend against intruders. They may also leave claw marks on trees near the edge of their territory. The scratches serve not only to delineate the boundary but also to attract females in heat.

Males and females also patrol their territory. Male cougars usually have larger home ranges than females. Where home ranges do overlap, cougars still avoid each other and remain solitary, gathering only to mate. Females are less solitary than males, remaining with their young until the kittens are about two years old.

Females with large litters and juveniles, or older kittens, typically have the largest home ranges, because a large cougar family needs more food resources than a small one. In areas where prey is migratory, cougars may have more than one home range.

Cougar populations are composed of resident adults with kittens and transients. Transients most often are independent young cougars that have not yet settled on their own territory, and they tend to be male. Males typically disperse over a much greater distance than females, and are known to travel more than km from the territory where they were born. In western North America, population densities as high as four individuals per km 2 have been reported.

Because large predators such as the cougar are at the top of the food chain, a healthy cougar population is a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem.

Cougars are extremely elusive and usually avoid direct contact with people. Masters of camouflage, they often remain hidden when approached closely on foot. While tracking a cougar during winter, a researcher stepped within 1 m of its hiding place beneath a large spruce tree before the cat bounded out of its hiding place, racing away.

Tracks and tail drag marks in the snow or mud are usually the only evidence confirming the presence of these secretive, rarely seen animals. The distribution of the cougar has shrunk drastically since European settlement. Lawrence valley of Quebec, and New Brunswick. Today, this large predator remains common only in the west.

Nevertheless, the cougar still occupies the most extensive range of any terrestrial mammal in the western hemisphere. It also lives at many altitudes, from sea level to m, and in many climatic ranges, from dry deserts to deep, wet lowland tropical rainforests. Recent sightings have confirmed its presence in boreal forest habitat, where populations of white-tailed deer thrive. In Canada, the distribution of what was once thought to be a distinct subspecies, Felis concolor couguar Kerr, has generated much controversy.

During the last century, cougars have been reported in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia; in fact, more than sightings have been reported since in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick alone. However, some of the sightings have proved to be cougars from southern areas that had likely escaped or been released from captivity. There is little physical evidence, such as road kills or scats, that cougars have been present in eastern Canada since the nineteenth century. Cougars hunt mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, moose calves, and in the west, bighorn sheep.

As opportunistic predators, eating a wide range of available species, they may also prey on birds and other mammals, including beaver, snowshoe hare, ground squirrel, and coyote. Where a variety of prey species are available, the diet of males and females can be very different. For instance, in the Sheep River area of southwestern Alberta, moose calves account for about 85 percent of the winter prey of males, whereas deer and elk represent 79 percent of the diet of females.

Cougars killed during territorial battles with other cougars may also be eaten by the successful animal. Cougars will occasionally scavenge too, meaning they will eat prey killed by other animals. Cougars rely on sight and hearing far more than smell for hunting. They stalk their prey to within two or three great leaps and then launch a lightning-fast charge, striking their prey. Victims are most often killed by suffocation with a prolonged bite across the throat, collapsing the windpipe.

Large prey, such as moose calves and elk, are usually suffocated, whereas small prey, such as mule deer fawns, are more likely to die from broken necks.

A cougar will cover its kill with debris between feedings so as to reduce the likelihood of scavengers locating and feeding on it. Cougars are polygamous, which means they may have more than one mate.

A male with a large home range is able to breed with many females, and a resident male usually attempts to maintain exclusive breeding rights with females within his territory. Cougars may breed any time of the year, although they most commonly breed in the winter. Males roam to breed with as many females as possible, sometimes travelling many kilometres a day searching for receptive females.

Competition for female breeding rights is intense, and males are often killed in territorial fights. Females reach sexual maturity when they are two to three years old. The gestation period lasts 90 days. They usually give birth to one to three kittens, and occasionally as many as six, but no more than three usually reach maturity. The female finds a sheltered spot such as a cave or a windfall in order to give birth. The kittens are born with their eyes closed, but they grow quickly and their eyes become fully open by the end of the second week.

The female nurses the young for four to five weeks, and they remain with their mother for 18 to 24 months for food and to learn hunting skills. Females usually do not allow the male to approach the kittens as he may kill them because he does not recognize them as his own offspring.

When a resident male is killed and a new male arrives in the vacant territory, he may kill all the kittens that he finds because they are not his offspring and because once the young are destroyed, the female will be more likely to breed again, producing his offspring.

The mortality rate among kittens is high during the first year and after separation from the female. As soon as the juveniles are on their own, the female is likely to breed again. In a seven-year study conducted in southwestern Alberta, females produced one litter per year. Often these attacks occurred when a cougar was weakened by disease, parasites, or injury, making free-ranging or unsupervised livestock the easiest food source available. Predators, like the cougar, would be killed, and the other animals would be allowed to escape.

Other means of eradicating cougars have ranged from hounds, traps, and poison to bounties. Cougars are also killed through trophy hunting in jurisdictions where cougar hunting with hounds is still permitted—the normally elusive cougars are easily treed by hounds.

These control techniques have resulted in a drastic decline in many cougar populations. Cougars also die following serious injuries sustained when they pursue prey larger than themselves. Young cougars that have recently left their mothers are also more prone to starvation than their elders. Kittens, young cougars, and adult males are sometimes killed by adult male cougars. There is, therefore, insufficient information to assign a status to this animal.

Western populations of cougar appear stable, and while the cougar has virtually disappeared from eastern Canada, there are signs that it may be moving east and repopulating former ranges. In recent years, a greater presence of cougars in central and eastern Canada has been confirmed through trapping and DNA evidence. These two specimens were the first to be brought to the attention of wildlife authorities in the province in 32 years.

With the removal of bounties and with enlightened management and conservation efforts for cougars, there is renewed hope that the species will persist throughout Canada if suitable habitat remains available. Canadian Geographic Kids, The Cougar. Culver, M. Johnson, J. Secon-Slattery, and S. Genomic ancestry of the American puma Puma concolor. The American Genetic Association — Nowell, K. Wild cats—status survey and conservation action plan.

Ross, P. Jalkotzy, and M. Cougar predation on bighorn sheep in southwestern Alberta during winter. Canadian Journal of Zoology — Scott, Fred. Stocek, R. The cougar, Felis concolor , in the Maritime Provinces. Canadian Field-Naturalist 19— Wissink, R. Back from the brink? The eastern cougar lives! Naturalist 1 4 : All rights reserved. Text: B. Amirault-Langlais, The Northern Leopard Frog Lithobates pipiens is named for its leopard-like spots across its back and sides.

Historically, these frogs were harvested for food frog legs and are still used today for dissection practice in biology class.

Northern Leopard Frogs are about the size of a plum, ranging from 7 to 12 centimetres. They have a variety of unique colour morphs, or genetic colour variations. They can be different shades of green and brown with rounded black spots across its back and legs and can even appear with no spots at all known as a burnsi morph. They have white bellies and two light coloured dorsal back ridges. Another pale line travels underneath the nostril, eye and tympanum, ending at the shoulder.

The tympanum is an external hearing structure just behind and below the eye that looks like a small disk. Black pupils and golden irises make up their eyes. They are often confused with Pickerel Frogs Lithobates palustris ; whose spots are more squared then rounded and have a yellowish underbelly.

Male frogs are typically smaller than the females. Their average life span is two to four years in the wild, but up to nine years in captivity. Tadpoles are dark brown with tan tails.

Lampreys are an amazing group of ancient fish species which first appeared around million years ago. This means they evolved millions of years before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. There are about 39 species of lamprey currently described plus some additional landlocked populations and varieties. In general, lamprey are one of three different life history types and are a combination of non-parasitic and parasitic species.

Non-parasitic lamprey feed on organic material and detritus in the water column. Parasitic lamprey attach to other fish species to feed on their blood and tissues. Most, 22 of the 39 species, are non-parasitic and spend their entire lives in freshwater. The remainder are either parasitic spending their whole life in freshwater or, parasitic and anadromous.

Anadromous parasitic lampreys grow in freshwater before migrating to the sea where they feed parasitically and then migrate back to freshwater to spawn. The Cowichan Lake lamprey Entosphenus macrostomus is a freshwater parasitic lamprey species.

It has a worm or eel-like shape with two distinct dorsal fins and a small tail. It is a slender fish reaching a maximum length of about mm. When they are getting ready to spawn they shrink in length and their dorsal fins overlap.

Unlike many other fish species, when lampreys are getting ready to spawn you can tell the difference between males and females. The sexes look alike, though male lions are 30 to 40 percent larger than females. Exceptional individuals have exceeded pounds, but this is rare. Adult males will measure 6 to 8 feet from nose to tail tip and females 5 to 7 feet. Mountain lion kittens or cubs either term is correct have camouflaging spots and rings around their tails that fade as they mature.

Mountain lions used to occupy the entire United States coast-to-coast, but today they are primarily found in 14 western states with a small endangered population in Florida.

Five very small populations have regained an unsteady foothold just east of the Rockies in the s and 90s, but their future is uncertain. They prefer areas with dense undergrowth and cover, and will leave an area if they perceive a threat.

Found in deserts, humid coast forests, arid hillsides, scrub and oak woodlands, lions can live from sea level to snow-covered mountain peaks. A ten year lifespan is considered old age for a mountain lion in the wild.

Lions in captivity have been known to live twice that long. In areas where mountain lions are hunted for sport, only a small percentage make it past five years old.

Mountain lions are solitary unless mating or parenting and maintain territories that average square miles in size. Lions mark their territories by clawing trees and urinating on scratch piles of dry leaves, grass or pine needles. They will fight other lions, even to the death, to protect their territory.

A female with kittens will move to a new den site within her territory every few weeks to protect her kittens from predators and male lions. Opportunistic hunters, mountain lions typically hunt alone from dusk to dawn, taking their prey primarily deer from behind. On average, a lion will kill a deer about once a week.

They also dine on coyotes, raccoons, rodents, elk, feral hogs, and even porcupines. They may drag the meal to another area and cover it with dry leaves, grass or pine needles to protect the food from other animals and to reduce spoilage. A mountain lion may return to feed at the site over a period of several days.

To deer, yes! To people, not so much. Human encounters with mountain lions are rare and the risk of an attack is infinitely small. You are more likely to drown in your bathtub, be killed by a pet dog, or hit by lightning. If lions had any natural urge to hunt people, there would be attacks every single day. Instead, they avoid us. But if you live, work, or play in cat country, be alert! Avoid walking alone between dusk and dawn when lions are most active.

Keep your children and pets close to you. Never approach or corner a mountain lion or any wild animal.