America’s most dangerous cats or cute animals: the whole truth about cougars

Reports that a cougar is wandering in the vicinity of a town in the western United States cause panic among the local population and activate police officers. There are also frequent testimonies of employees of national parks who tell chilling stories about how a cougar watched them throughout the day. But cougars live not only in protected natural reserves. Despite the fact that the Wild West has long ceased to be wild, cougars are still abundant here - one of the largest and most dangerous felids on the planet. But are cougars really dangerous?

Cougars were once widespread throughout the Americas, from the southern outskirts of Patagonia to the forests of Alaska. Native Indians called the cougar a friend of a person and were never afraid of her. In the legends and tales of the peoples of pre-Columbian America, cougars always appear as good heroes, the Indians considered them to be kind and playful animals.

But the colonizers who appeared mercilessly shot off the cougar, as they hunted livestock and inspired fear in all white people. Such a struggle with these beautiful feline representatives led to the fact that by the beginning of the XX century in the USA, the cougar had almost disappeared and remained only in remote mountainous areas of the west of the country, in other parts of the continent its number also decreased.

Modern habitat pum

Despite all the difficulties that fell on the cougars, they managed to adapt quite well to the changing world. This was largely due to the fact that cougars are very smart and dexterous cats that quickly adapt to new habitats.

They swim perfectly and quickly run through the mountains. Today, their range is also very extensive, and the number is about 30,000 individuals. In total, the species has several subspecies that are identified on the basis of genetic studies of the population.

The weight of adult cougars can reach 80-100 kilograms, and they occupy 4 place among cats in size, second only to lions, tigers and jaguars. These large cats lead a solitary lifestyle, and each animal has its own hunting territory. They prey mainly on various ungulates, but on occasion they do not disdain smaller animals.

The offspring of cougars are quite numerous - the female gives birth to 5-6 kittens. It is interesting that the color of small pumas is smoky, with stripes and spots of a dark, almost black color, and it is difficult to recognize future pumas in them. But as they grow older, they begin to look more and more like their mother and by the age of 2 are no longer distinguishable from adult cougars. The offspring remains with the mother until 1.5-2 years.

As biologists have established, the myths about the danger and bloodthirstiness of cougars are greatly exaggerated, and the Indians, who considered them to be kind and friendly cats, were right. According to available statistics, from 1890 to 2004 in Canada and the United States, a total of 88 cases of attacks on a person were recorded, that is, less than 1 case per year. Most of them occurred in the dark, and some of these attacks were provoked by the people themselves. In many countries of the continent, cougars are now protected and hunting is prohibited.