Mountain Lion Hunting Guides and Outfitters – Trips and Guided Hunts

Mountain Lion: A large “New World” big game cat that compares in size and strength with the jaguar. The mountain lion is also known as the puma, cougar, panther, painter, and catamount, originally was found in an area stretching form Alaska and Canada on the north to Patagonia at the southernmost end of South America. Today the mountain lion can still be found in the open and mountainous areas of South America, in Central America, and Mexico, and, in somewhat smaller numbers, in the more sparsely inhabited regions of the western parts of the United States and Canada, and in Florida and bordering states in the east. There are a number of mountain lion hunting guides and outfitters who offer services for trips and guided hunts for this big game animal. The range of the mountain lion coincides in area rather closely with that of the deer which is its major source of food.

The mountain lion has a small head, a lithe, powerful body covered with a uniform tawny or grayish coat, and a long, heavy tail, slightly tufted at the tip. Large tomcats {males}, weigh up to 170 pounds, stand twenty-five to thirty inches at the shoulder, and have a total length of from six to over eight feet, including the thirty-inch tail. The size of this predator is one of the reasons that make this big game so popular for guided hunts and planned trips. The female mountain lion is usually somewhat smaller than the tom. The mountain lion is the second largest cat commonly found in the United States, being surpassed only by the jaguar.

The mountain lion is a big-game hunter, and deer are its favorite prey. It sleeps in a cave or sun-bathes on a rock ledge during the day, leaving its lair at nightfall to stalk its prey, which it brings down with its lightning-speed spring. A mountain lion can spring forward twenty-0five feet in one leap, jump down from a height of sixty feet, and jump up fifteen feet; it is capable of hauling a victim five times its own size for a considerable distance. After satisfying its hunger, the mountain lion carefully covers the remainder of the carcass with leaves until ready to feed again.

Mountain lions have no fixed breeding season. During the mating season the mountain lion often utters a loud, blood-curdling cry that can be heard two miles away. The kittens, numbering up to five in a litter, are born three months after mating. At birth they are a foot long, weigh about one pound, and are covered with yellowish, downy, spotted fur. The kittens’ eyes are tightly closed for the first eight or nine days after birth; their spots begin to fade when six mounts old, and completely disappear at one year.

The mountain lion has a life expectancy of up to fifteen years. It has no natural enemies except perhaps the rarely encountered grizzly bear. Of course we are not counting hunters or the outfitter or guide that offer this big game on trips and guided hunts. The Indians in South America claim that a mountain lion is more than a mach for a jaguar in a fight. This cat is elusive and, with very rare exceptions, never makes an unprovoked attack on man.

Scientific Classification: The mountain lion also known as the puma, cougar, panther, painter, and catamount is a mammal that belongs to the cat family, Felidae. It is genus Felis, species F. concolor.

Tips on Mountain Lion Hunting