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Puma
THE PUMA - CAT OF ONE COLOUR (Puma concolor)
THE PUMA - CAT OF ONE COLOUR (Puma concolor)
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THE PUMA - CAT OF ONE COLOUR (Puma concolor)
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Heaviest puma hunted in Venezuela weighted 75 kilograms and measured 2,15 mts long from head to the tip of the tail in Hato El Cuartel close to San Carlos in Estafo Cojedes, it hunted a total of 36 young animals in a span of 36 days, they weighted from 300 to 350 kilograms. Male Pumas in Peru weight from 20 to 30 kilograms, and males in Canada and Chile weight from 65 to 85 kgs. Information by Rafael Hoogesteijn and picture credit to Ernesto O. Boede  *This image is copyright of its original author
 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.
(04-14-2019, 07:13 AM)smedz Wrote: 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.   (05-14-2019, 12:39 AM)epaiva Wrote:(05-14-2019, 12:27 AM)Pckts Wrote: Big tom Yep, was at least. I hate looking at pictures like this, when will people learn that hunting these animals isn't necessary? Seriously, just look at their excuses. https://www.realtree.com/predator-hunting/why-cougar-hunting-means-better-deer-hunting
https://peru.info/en-us/tourism/news/3/16/andean-puma--the-second-largest-feline-in-america
"The puma owes its different names to the different habitats in which it lives; it can be found in mountainous deserts, forests, wetlands, plains, and even on snow-capped mountains at an altitude of almost 16,400 feet, where paw prints have been found. It can be found from Canada to the end of the Andes Mountains, where it has been most successful in terms of survival. South America is where the most subspecies of puma can be found. There is the puma concolor concolor or Northern South American puma, which lives in Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina; the puma concolor cabrerae or Argentinian puma, is found in Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina; the puma concolor anthonyi or Eastern South American puma, can be seen in Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay; and the puma concolor puma or Southern South American puma, a subspecies found in Chile and Argentina, which can withstand the lowest temperatures" As mentioned before in this thread, these cougars are one of the larger ones:  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
(05-22-2019, 11:22 AM)Luipaard Wrote: https://peru.info/en-us/tourism/news/3/16/andean-puma--the-second-largest-feline-in-america Or formerly recognized subspecies, if you like. The Cat Specialist Group reckons that all South American cougars, with the possible exception of those in northwestern South America, are 1 subspecies, Puma concolor concolor (Pages 32−33: https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/hand...sAllowed=y), unless the puma ends up in a similar situation as the tiger, which had its taxonomy revised by the CSG in 2017 to 2 subspecies (Pages 66−68), before 2 CSG members rebelled against this decision by helping to produce a genetic study in 2018 to say that there are indeed 6 subspecies of tigers (https://www.cell.com/current-biology/ful...all%3Dtrue). By the way, that Patagonian cougar at the top is quite muscular. (05-22-2019, 11:30 AM)Luipaard Wrote: "Look this incredible sighting using camera traps!, a white cougar (Puma concolor) in Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos in Brasil!. This genetic condition is called leucism and it’s ultra rare in cougars!" (link) That makes me wonder if there are black cougars as alleged, which, if true, would mean that black panthers are not confined to leopards and jaguars in the genus Panthera, and that jaguars are not the only black panthers in the Americas. Ruiz's black puma (Miguel Ruiz Herrero): http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2012/08/t...ating.html  *This image is copyright of its original author
redyaguarete -Our cameras not only record Jaguars, just look at this magnificent and robust Puma that stopped right in front of one of them to mark its territory. Montane Forests of the El Nogalar National Reserve, at about 2,400 masl, in Salta province. 
Where the hunting grounds of apex predators overlap, there are always winners and losers. Large carnivores use their brawn to force smaller rivals off meals, or worse: to wipe out the opposition entirely. Others use strength in numbers to gain ground and resources. It's a struggle for dominance that America's second-largest cats know well, a new study shows.
 *This image is copyright of its original author A map showing where pumas are dominant and subordinate across their range. Research from global wild-cat conservation organisation Panthera reveals that in almost half of their expansive range across the Americas, pumas are outmatched by at least one other large predator in the contest for food, space and resources. While the cats certainly rank at the top of the food chain, they are forced to share this position with contenders like wolves, bears and jaguars. The study found that pumas came off second best to other large predators in as much as 47.5% of their 22,735,268 square-kilometre range – a habitat that's greater than any other large land mammal in the Western Hemisphere. More here: https://www.earthtouchnews.com/conservation/conservation/king-of-the-carnivores-how-bears-wolves-jaguars-stack-up-against-pumas |
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