Mountain Lion (S/F)

The mountain lion (Puma concolor), also called the puma, cougar, American panther, or catamount, is a species of medium-sized carnivorous mammal in the cat family Felidae. As the most widely-distributed wild mammal in the entire Western Hemisphere, it can be found all throughout the Americas, from the boreal forests of northwestern North America to the southern end of the Andes Mountains in extreme southern South America. Across its range it inhabits an incredibly wide array of habitats, and its behavior patterns are correspondingly diverse. It is usually solitary, and mainly hunts deer and other mammals. Fossil evidence suggests that it evolved during the middle Pleistocene age, about 1.2 million years ago. While it is locally extinct in some areas (such as New England) and endangered in others (such as the American Southeast), overall as of 2025 it is considered a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.