How long is a pumas life span

In the Chilean Patagonia, pumas hunt guanacos. After mating, the female will carry her young for a gestation period of 3 months. Than a litter of 1 to 6 cubs are born. Maternal dens are usually caves or other covered areas offering protection for the cubs.

The mother nurses them for 3 months or so , but they can eat meat at about 6 weeks of age. At six months old , cubs hunt for small prey of the own. They learn quickly. Cubs will leave their mother to establish their own territory at around two years old.

The male responds with similar yowls and sniffs the female's genital area. The highest frequency of copulation was nine times in one hour. A single copulatory act lasts less than one minute. Courtship and mating occurs throughout the year, but is concentrated from December to March in northern latitudes.

Gestation periods last from 82 to 96 days. A female mountain lion can come into estrus any time of the year. Estrus lasts about nine days. Females usually give birth every other year. After six cycles without mating, the female has a lull for two months before coming into estrous again.

Males remain reproductively active to at least an age of 20 years, and females to at least an age of 12 years. Litters vary in size from 1 to 6 cubs with an average of 3 or 4. Birth weight is between to grams. The cubs open their eyes 10 days after birth. At the same time their ear pinnae unfolds, their first teeth erupt, and they begin play. The cubs are fully weaned at about 40 days of age.

Mother and cubs remain together for as long as 26 months, though the average is 15 months. Male young disperse from 23 to km, while females disperse from 9 to km.

Mother mountain lions care for and nurse their young until they are about a year old. The young are born helpless and are protected by the mother in a sheltered area until they are big enough to roam and begin to learn and practice hunting skills. Mountain lions may live up to 18 to 20 years in the wild. They can live slightly longer in captivity. Mountain lions are solitary animals, with the exception of 1 to 6 days of associations during mating and periods of juvenile dependence.

Population densities vary from as low as one individual per 85 square kilometers to as high as one per 13 to 54 square kilometers, depending on the density of prey and other resources in the area.

Females with dependent cubs live within the wide space used by the resident male. Mountain lions mark their territories by depositing urine or fecal materials by trees marked with scrapes. Mountain lions are primarily nocturnal. Males are found together immediately after leaving their mother, but rarely as established adults.

Mountain lions have summer and winter home ranges in some areas, requiring a migration between ranges. Home ranges of females range from 26 to square kilometers, with an average of square kilometers. Female home ranges may overlap extensively. Male home ranges do not overlap with those of other males and typically encompass the home ranges of two females. They range in size from to square kilometers, with an average of square kilometers.

Mountain lions rely mainly on vision, smell, and hearing. They use low-pitched hisses, growls, purrs, yowls, and screams in different circumstances.

Loud, chirping whistles by young serves to call the mother. Touch is important in social bonding between mother and young. Scent marking is important in advertising territory boundaries and reproductive state. Mountain lions are carnivores. Their main prey throughout their range are different species of ungulates, including moose , elk , white-tailed deer , mule deer , and caribou in North America.

They will also eat smaller creatures like squirrels , muskrat , porcupine , beaver , raccoon , striped skunk , coyote , bobcats , other mountain lions, rabbits , opossums , birds , and even snails and fish. They may also prey on domestic livestock, including poultry, calves, sheep, goats, and pigs.

Mountain lions have a distinctive manner of hunting larger prey. The lion quietly stalks the prey animals, then leaps at close range onto their back and breaks the animal's neck with a powerful bite below the base of the skull. Its powerful forequarters, neck, and jaw serve to grasp and hold large prey.

It has five retractable claws on its fore-paws one a dewclaw and four on its hind paws. The larger front feet and claws are adaptations to clutching prey. It is adept at climbing, which allows it to evade canine competitors. Although it is not strongly associated with water, it can swim. The cougar is on average larger than all felid species apart from the lion , tiger, and jaguar. Despite its size, it is not typically classified among the " big cats " because it cannot roar.

Cougars sometimes voice low-pitched hisses, growls, and purrs, as well as chirps and whistles, many of which are comparable to those of domestic cats. They are well known for their screams.

Like almost all cats, the cougar is a mostly solitary animal. Only mothers and kittens live in groups, with adults meeting rarely. While generally loners, cougars will share kills with one another and seem to organize themselves into small communities defined by the territories of dominant males. Cats within these areas socialize more frequently with each other than with outsiders.

When males encounter each other, they hiss, spit, and may engage in violent conflict if neither backs down. Pumas are carnivores because they eat only meat. Males typically weigh to lbs. A puma's tail is almost as long as its head and body combined. Pumas can adapt to a wide variety of climates and habitats. They are found throughout Central and South America. In North America, however, hunting has reduced their range to isolated areas in Mexico, western U. Unlike other cats, pumas do not live in packs.

They live by themselves in large territories, which they mark using urine or feces. Pumas are solitary creatures for good reason. They need hunting room to find enough food to live.

Only a few pumas can live in a square-mile 78 square kilometers radius. Pumas are crepuscular creatures. They hunt during the twilight hours of dawn and dusk.