Many people think that lions are not only distributed in Africa and Asia, but also in the Americas, and the lions in the Americas are called mountain lions. In fact, this view is not correct, although from the name point of view, the mountain lion does look like a lion, but in fact it is not much related to the lion we know, or even in the same subfamily.
There are two main categories of lions in the true modern sense: African lions and Asiatic lions, and there is no other lion species. If the most understandable term is to describe the relationship between lions and mountain lions, it is that lions belong to leopards and mountain lions belong to cats.
lion
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > big cat in the cat subchrea</h1>
Modern cats are divided into two subfamily, namely the leopard subfamily and the cat subfamily, which have fewer members, in addition to the "five brothers" of the leopard genus as we know it, there are also clouded leopards and Malay clouded leopards.
The number of members of the cat subfamily is larger, but most of them are small cats, which look similar to domestic cats, but there are also two "big men" in the cat subfamily, that is, mountain lions and cheetahs, especially mountain lions, which are the size ceiling of the cat subfamily, and also the ceiling of combat strength, after adulthood, the female weighs 29-64 kg, and the male is 53-100 kg, because the distribution latitude span of the cougar is large, so the individual body size in different regions varies greatly, and the main law is: the closer to the equator, the smaller the body size, The closer you get to the poles, the bigger you are.
Brown mountain lion
In the traditional classification, the mountain lion is the only species in the genus American golden cat, so many people still call it the American golden cat, which cannot be said to be wrong. From the feline phylogenetic trees, mountain lions are most closely related to slender-waisted cats, followed by cheetahs.
In the latest classification, there are 6 subspecies of mountain lions, such as Columbian mountain lions, Florida mountain lions, etc., and their naming rules are basically named by region. However, in the traditional classification, mountain lions are divided into 32 subspecies, although there are certain differences in the appearance between the subspecies, but the whole is similar, their body hair is shorter, and they become "pure color" after adulthood, mostly brownish gray or silver gray.
Grey mountain lion
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the "king" of North America</h1>
If the tiger is the king of the Asian forest, the lion is the overlord of the African savannah, then the mountain lion is the largest "king" in North America, some people say that the strength of the grizzly bear and the jaguar is above it, but don't forget, the grizzly bear is an omnivore, its food source is mostly plant nature, and the ability to prey on large prey is extremely poor, more for scavenging nature, can not be regarded as a predator in the strict sense, and now the main territory of the jaguar is in South America and Central America, north America is almost not involved, so in North America None of them will have much of an impact on mountain lions.
jaguar
Although the cheetah has the name of "Zhao Zilong in the cat", the highest combat power in the cat subfamily is also the mountain lion, which has strong limbs, large paws, and 5 paws on the front paws, which is very suitable for climbing and catching prey.
Usually, the size of an animal represents combat effectiveness, especially among animals of the same type, which is more applicable, the mountain lion is the largest in the cat subfamily, and in some areas, it is even larger than the local jaguar.
For example, the cougar in the Kuxmara Reserve in Mexico is as large as the local jaguar, while the cougar living in Canada is larger than most jaguars living in Central America.
The strength of the mountain lion is also manifested in hunting, in general, the predators of the object of prey are usually smaller than themselves, if not, then it is most likely to be social, throughout the tiger lion leopard, all in line with this law. Mountain lions are basically between 2-22 kg in size, but many times they have also been observed preying on larger deer.
Wild deer in North America are very rich, especially since the explosion of deer numbers in the suburbs of the United States, mountain lions have not lacked food, they occupy an important part of the mountain lion's diet, and prey on these large deer, the vast majority of species in the cat subfamily can not do.
Mountain lion in a tree
There are two kinds of wolves in North America: gray wolves and coyotes, the gray wolves in North America are the largest among wolves in the world, and many people think that the gregarious gray wolves are the largest kings in North America, but from the current observational studies, the gray wolves seem to have little impact on mountain lions.
From the perspective of microhabitasis, although the mountain lion is widely distributed and adaptable, its favorite habitat type is rocky areas, steep canyons and bushes, while the North American gray wolf prefers plain areas, and its survival ability in steep canyons and bare rocks is average, which dooms them to not have a great conflict between them.
North American gray wolves
Although the coyote bears the name "wolf", its strength is very poor, this is a small and medium-sized canine, weighing only 7-20 kg, in North America, mountain lions, gray wolves, lynx, grizzly bears, golden eagles, alligators and other beasts have been observed to prey on adult coyotes.
Therefore, coyotes do not pose a threat to mountain lions, on the contrary, in the area where the habitats of the two overlap, mountain lions inhibit the development of coyotes everywhere, for example, in the eastern Nedahua Mountains, coyotes and mountain lions live together, and the two compete for prey resources such as deer, so coyotes are "beaten" by mountain lions.
Mountain lions hunt coyotes
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > socially aware solitary</h1>
In the traditional concept, animals either live in groups or live alone, the boundaries between them are relatively clear, people's cognition of cats, only lions are gregarious, others are solitary animals, but more and more research shows that solitary animals do not seem to be as lonely as we think.
For example, the Eurasian lynx living in the Nalipoki Forest in Belarus has been observed by researchers to have a certain sociality, and the male lynx is not only with the female lynx during the estrus period, but throughout the entire estrus period, that is, before and after the estrus period, it has lived together, and after the female lynx has given birth, it will also participate in the process of childbearing.
Lynx of the Nalipoki Forest
Mountain lions are also traditionally solitary animals, but today they have also been studied to have a complex social system, they are a very good social class of solitary cats, although territorial, but in most cases, they have a high tolerance for their own kind, and even allow their kind to share their own food.
A group of scientists followed 13 mountain lions for 3 years, recorded 242 feeding occasions, and found that mountain lions shared a lot of food, and this behavior was more pronounced in female mountain lions and elderly mountain lions.
The Team of Marc Elbrok, a cougar project at the Wild Cat Research Institute, has documented multiple interaction scenes of mountain lions, with the largest number of individual mountain lions participating in the "party" being 9 at one time. The behavior of this solitary animal gathering briefly for some reason has a professional term called the "transient cluster phenomenon" in academia.
Not only females, elderly mountain lions, adult male mountain lions have also been observed to have food sharing, in a total of 6 times more than 3 mountain lion interaction scenes recorded, 4 times the protagonist is a male mountain lion, they give food to their spouses, children, strange female mountain lions, and even strange female mountain lions and its cubs.
Cougar interaction
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > weigh the pros and cons, and the mountain lion's account is not confused</h1>
Felines are basically territorial, but why do mountain lions allow their counterparts to share their food? In fact, not only mountain lions, lynx, tigers, cheetahs, etc. have been observed to share food, but it is more common in mountain lions.
Experts believe that this is most likely a behavioral choice after weighing the pros and cons, that is, after A cougar has captured the prey, it has attracted another B cougar, at which time A cougar has two choices, one is to expel, the other is to share food.
Most adult mountain lions are solitary, its most common prey is some deer, a mountain lion has a limited amount of food in one meal, it is impossible to eat a deer, and the remaining food is hidden, it is very likely to be grizzly bears with "scavenger" attributes to turn out and eat, in the end it is still a void.
So the mountain lion will have a consideration, instead of spending a lot of effort to take a certain risk to expel the intruder, it is better to share their excess food, in exchange for peace between the two sides, this account, the mountain lion is not confused, in the 118 mountain lion interaction scenes recorded in the study, more than 70 times occurred under the eating occasion.
The phenomenon of food sharing among mountain lions
Of course, prey is a very important survival resource for predators, which is basically not the case in the season of scarcity, and now the awareness of environmental protection in North America has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, not only in protected areas or pristine environments, but also in the suburbs.
For example, in some states in the United States, there are even explicit persuasions to the public not to plant some deer favorite plants in their own yards, so as not to attract wild deer to come, and then attract dangerous mountain lions, which shows how large the number of deer in the suburbs of the United States is, in this environment, mountain lions almost do not have to worry about prey.
As a social cougar, the intruder does not "sit down to eat" as soon as he comes, just like when you go to a friend's house, you are not embarrassed to sit down directly when you arrive at the meal, but to see if your friend's home stays with you to eat.
The phenomenon of cougar food sharing is also similar, when the B cougar breaks into the A cougar feeding occasion, it will first "observe the color", that is, make some small tentative, such as slowly approaching, making some sounds, and then look at the response of the A cougar, if the other party does not have too much resistance, it means that it agrees to stay and "eat" together, then this time the B cougar will eat together.
Baby cougar feeding scene
In fact, the food sharing phenomenon of mountain lions is a more complex social system based on mutual benefit and reciprocity, which is their own way of socializing.
Why are mountain lions so "good at accounting"? Perhaps related to their growth environment, among all cats, mountain lions are the most "spoiled" their children, female cougars accompany their cubs the longest during lactation, the time to start training cubs is the latest, after the 18th month, the female cougar will gradually train some survival skills of the cubs, and in daily life, whenever the female cougar catches a prey, she will gather all the cubs to eat together, perhaps their willingness to share food has been engraved in their bones when they are young.
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