THE PUMA - CAT OF ONE COLOUR (Puma concolor)

[Shadow]

(04-14-2019, 07:13 AM)smedz Wrote:

COUGARS AND WOLVES IN THE EASTERN WOODLANDS 

             North America, a land of beauty, stupid people, and many habitats is home to many hunters, (not trophy hunters, REAL hunters) which include the Grizzly, Black Bear, Wolverine, Bobcat, Canada Lynx, Coyote, Fox, and also two amazing hunters. The wolf, a great hunter, hunting in packs, even bringing down fully grown bison. Then you have the cougar, a large cat that is very adaptable, and also has way too many names. Seriously, I'm not even going to list all the names this cat has. Today, they coexist in the Western United States and Canada, but at one time in history, both of them lived in the Eastern United States, back then, the forests were so plentiful that a squirrel could travel from Indiana to New York without ever touching the ground. With more habitat, that also meant more animals, and among them were cougars and wolves. But how did they coexist? who was the dominant hunter of these two? Well let's look at the situation shall we? 

        To answer this question, we obviously must take a look at the interactions that take place in our time. First, we must head to Yellowstone National Park. Here, it is very clear that wolves dominate, the reason being that packs here are large, big enough to the point where they can hunt bison. Wolves here have killed cougars, and a cougar doesn't have the size or the power to effectively fight multiple wolves, so out in the open, a cougar won't stand it's ground, and if lucky enough, can use it's superior speed to run for the trees to make a quick getaway. So in Yellowstone, wolves clearly have the advantage. Another place we must go to is the Bitteroot mountains on the Montana-Idaho border. Here, things are different, cougars in this region have killed wolves, including wolves with radio collars. But how can cougars have the advantage here? Well in the Bitteroot, there are much more trees, and other places cougars can make quick escapes from attacking wolves. Something else that helps the cougars is that wolf packs are smaller in the bitteroot because in this habitat, they can't use the full strength of a pack here, and so the normal number of wolves in a pack is 4-7 adults. With packs being smaller, that obviously gives the cougars more confidence in being able to battle the wolves. So the big thing here that determines which one is dominate is the habitat. The eastern USA was forest and some grasslands, and you also have the Appalachian mountains. Prey would have included bison, elk, white-tailed deer, and turkey, so there wasn't as much big game in these regions, although in some places, there are moose. However, most of this part of the continent was and still is forest, the kind of habitat that gives cougars an edge, as they are less vulnerable to wolf attacks, and wolf packs are smaller in forests than on open plains. So, I personally believe that in the past, long before European settlers came along, cougars might have had the edge in this region.  

One thing to remember is, that wolves aren´t all the time in packs. There are lone wolves and pairs. It is difficult to see a cougar challenging a pack of 4-7 wolves, because it is outnumbered in such situation quite badly. But when meeting a lone wolf it is naturally totally different thing. One thing to compare a bit is, that there is footage of even just two dholes treeing a leopard. Most probably when there is a wolf killed by a cougar, it has been a lone wolf. Wolf is so big animal, that facing alone even a small pack sounds overwhelming for a cougar which is approximately same size. Reply