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Puma (/ ˈ p j uː m ə / or / ˈ p uː m ə /) is a genus in the family Felidae whose only extant species is the cougar (also known as the puma, mountain lion, and panther, [2] among other names), and may also include several poorly known Old World fossil representatives (for example, Puma pardoides, or Owen's panther, a large, cougar-like cat of Eurasia's Pliocene).
A cougar in the snow at North Cedar Brook in Boulder, Colorado, the USA. The North American Cougar is a carnivore and its main sources of prey are deer, elk, mountain goats, moose and bighorn sheep. [25] Despite being a large predator, the North American Cougar can also be the prey of larger predators like wolves and bears. [26]
The cougar (Puma concolor) (/ ˈ k uː ɡ ər /, KOO-gər), also known as the panther, mountain lion, catamount and puma, is a large cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most widespread in the world.
The Florida panther had for a long time been considered a unique cougar subspecies, with the scientific name Felis concolor coryi proposed by Outram Bangs in 1899. [10] A genetic study of cougar mitochondrial DNA showed that many of the purported cougar subspecies described in the 19th century are too similar to be recognized as distinct. [11]
When comparing vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore diet types, researchers found that food quality and diversity may have the biggest impact on the health and structure of the gut microbiome.
Carnivores that feed on herbivores are secondary consumers; their predators are tertiary consumers, and so forth. [129] At the top of this food chain are apex predators such as lions. [130] Many predators however eat from multiple levels of the food chain; a carnivore may eat both secondary and tertiary consumers. [131]
A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet. Most organisms do not all fit neatly into either group, however. Some species are highly specialized (the most extreme case being monophagous, eating one specific type of food ), others less so, and some can tolerate many different ...
The eastern cougar or eastern puma (Puma concolor couguar) is a subspecies designation proposed in 1946 for cougar populations in eastern North America. [2] [3] The subspecies as described in 1946 was declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011. [4] However, the 1946 taxonomy is now in question. [5]