Ement+yifredew+Cougar

The //Cougar// is also known as mountain lion, puma, or panther and is a mamal to the felidae familly native to the America's.

location and habitat The cougar is found in the western hemishpere and lives in most of the Americas. The cougar has adapted to many different habitat types it is found in all forest types as well as in low flat land and mountainious deserts but its preferred habitats include preciptous canyons, escarpments, rim rocky areas and dense bruses. Many years ago the cougar was also found on the eastern coast of northern america untill settlers arrived and killed a great majority of the population Niche The cougar plays a very important role in its enviorment. The adult cougar reaches hieghts of 2 to 2.5 feet tall and lenghts of 8 feet long males typically wiegh between 115-198 pounds and females usually wiegh 90-141 pounds and is the largest of the small cats. The cougar is known to eat deer but the cougars diet really consists of anything it can catch from insects to large animals over 500 lbs and like all cats is a obligate carnivore feeding only on meat. the cougar has large retractable claws and astrong neck and jaw it also has large hind legs these attributes make it a powerfull stalk and ambush predator. The cougar has few symbiotic relationships but is very competitive, It competes with the grey wolf and jaguar for its catch because of two reasons there diets consist of mainly the same animals and they share the same territories. The cougar is a solitary animal and typically lives alone and hunts between dust and dawn but female cougar travel in packs when with there cub. female cougars reach sexual maturity between one and a half and three years of age they typically produce an average of one litter of there offspring every two to three years through there reprouductive life. the cougar has very little enviormental needs as to housing and climate requirements besides that it needs a warm enviorment and like all living things needs food. as you can see the cougar being a terciary consumer is a very uniqe animal that plays a very important role in its enviorment. Population Expansion​ The cougar is fit to fill the niche of an endangered jaguar. Although the jaguar is bigger in size and can catch bigger prey the cougar is the only other big cat in southern america. the cougar has many things in common with the jaguar both the cougar and jaguar are found in the rain forest of southern america also both cats have similar diets because there both obligate carnivore's and eat only meat. like cougars jaguars also reach sexual maturity at about the age of two. both the jaguar and cougar are solitary stalk ambush predators.also they are both crepuscular meaning they are active around dawn and dusk. as you can see the cougar is fit to fill the niche of an endangered jaguar. Competition in Species Both the cougar and jaguar have populations that reside in the western hemshpere. The jaguar population is decreasing through out south america. The cougar population has also decreased but not darasticly. In the future i predict that the jaguar will go extinct within the next century if it's population continues to decrease at this rate. When this happens the cougar will replace the jaguars niche and besides the slight changes in the ecosystem nothing else will really be affected. The jaguar is a a very large animal and can prey on animals very big. The cougar is not as big and cannot prey on all the same animals the jaguar can but for the most part the cougar could successfully replace the jaguars niche. both the animals have same territorys and diets making them highly competitive towards each other. Meaning that they fight alot for there prey or each other's cub. cougars have a broader food niche wich could give them an advantage over jaguars when faced with human induced habitat changes. Work Cited Hamdig, Paul "//Sympiatric Jaguar and Puma​"// **//ecology online sweden via archives.org, retrived: october 14 2009 from- []//**

Logan, Ken; Linda sweanor (2001). "Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Consorvation of an Enduring Carnivore" Island Press copywrite 2001

Rodrigo Nuanaez, Brian Miller, and Fred lindzey (2000). "Food Habits of Jaguars and Pumas in Jalisco Mexico" Journal of Zoology 252, Retrived: october 14 2009 from- []