What do Mountain Lions Eat

 What do Mountain Lions Eat

Mountain lion is a carnivore. These stealthy predators hunt their prey efficiently and quickly. They are active in night and kill any animals from larger ungulates to smaller insects. The population live in North America, prefer to hunt various deer species such as elk, white-tailed deer, mule deer, bull moose; without these animals, the mountain lions also kill horses, caribou, coyotes, prong hom fallow deer, bighorn etc. The populations live in Florida, hunt hogs and armadillos. The mountain lions also eat raccoons, black-tail deer, California sea lion, North American river otters. American mink. The population lives in Central and South America eat deer, capybara, but the mountain lions also eat smaller animals like hares, porcupines, guanaco, vicuna, beavers, mice, rhea. The birds are also hunt by the mountain lions such as wild turkey. The population who lives in South America also hunted eat bird and small reptiles. The populations live in Monte Leon National Park in Patagonia hunt and eat Penguins.  

The mountain lion is an opportunistic hunter. They hide into the bush, trees and other covered spots. When they see a prey, they wait for hours and stalks its prey. They creep close to the prey and stalks the prey. Mountain lions hunt alone. They kill the prey by breaking its neck or they grasp the prey’s throat for suffocating it. After killing, the stomach of the dead animal is the easiest point of entry to access the most nutritious parts of the body such as kidneys, heart and liver of the prey. 

When the mountain lions attack a bigger animal like horses or elk, they kill the prey by breaking its neck or grasp the prey’s throat for suffocates it. After killing, mountain lions drag the animal to an undisturbed area. Once they have their full meal, they cover the remaining parts of the prey with leaves or grass to protect it from being eaten by any other animals. In this way they save the food for another days.  

The population of deer is decline because mountain lions kill the deer faster but the reproduction of the deer is slower. Where the mountain lion population is high, they kill a large number of livestock in short time. In western states, 20% of total livestock were hunted by the mountain lions annually. 

Mountain lion has larger eyes with more rod cells than cone cells in retinas, give them an excellent night vision. They do not see clearly in dark. The mountain lions have excellent sense of hearing which helps them to detect high frequency sounds. Their excellent vision and hearing help them to hunt the hidden prey.  

Mountain lions have 3 types of teeth- carnassial teeth, canine teeth and incisors. The long and sharp carnassial teeth help to slice or shear the food; the thick and sharp canine teeth help them for puncturing and small and incisors teeth help them to chew the food. 

Mountain lion has 5 claws on its front legs and 4 on its hind legs. These claws on their paws help them to clutch the prey. 

 Generally, Mountain lions do not attack humans but from 1890 to 1990, 53 attacks of mountain lions were recorded in Canada and US and 10 humans had died.  

When the cubs are 4 to 6 months of age, they are fully weaned. The newborn cubs depend on mother’s milk up to first 50 days. When the cubs reach 7 to 9 weeks of age, they start to eat meat. 

 A mountain lion can eat 20 to 30 pounds of meat in a day and come back to eat the remains for up to 10 days. They kill larger animals every two weeks.

Mountain Lions