Puma

Many names

The puma holds the Guinness World Record for the animal with the most common names — over 40 in English alone, and more than 80 across its entire range. The most common:

• Puma — from Quechua; used in South America and scientific contexts
• Cougar — from Tupi via French; dominant in North America
• Mountain lion — popular in the western United States
• Panther — used in Florida (the Florida panther is a subspecies)

Despite these different names, it’s a single species throughout its range.

The largest small cat

Genetically, pumas are more closely related to smaller cats (cheetahs, jaguarundis) than to lions or tigers. They cannot roar — instead they scream, hiss, chirp, and purr (they purr on both inhale and exhale, like domestic cats). They’re classified in a different genus (Puma) from the “big cats” (Panthera).

The widest range

Puma concolor has the largest range of any wild land mammal in the Western Hemisphere — from the Yukon in Canada to the southern tip of Argentina. This reflects extraordinary adaptability: pumas hunt deer in dense forest, vicuña at 4,000 m in the Andes, and capybaras in tropical wetlands.

Expanding populations

Eastern North American populations were extirpated by the early 20th century. In recent decades, young males dispersing from western populations have been documented crossing the Mississippi — sightings in Missouri, Michigan, and elsewhere. A small isolated population in Florida (the Florida panther) has recovered from about 20 individuals to ~200 due to genetic rescue from Texas pumas.