Q: (sees cougar grab deer by neck and shake the body off) Ahh! Please don’t hurt me!
A: I won’t hurt you, Gees. Us cougars don’t like the taste of human. Why are you here anyway, I don’t like being where your kind is.
Q: Sorry! I was just out camping. I never thought that I would run into a cougar here. I do have a few questions though, like why are you here instead of the mountains?
A: Well, Some of us live up there, but we mostly we like to live in areas with dense vegetation. It makes it easier for us to hide our food, stock our prey, and raise and hide our young.
Q: So, what kind of food do you need to hide? I know you eat meat and all, but what do you hide?
A: What do you think? Meat! We hide the deer, porcupine, coyote, and raccoon carcasses. We prefer to savor our food. Animals like bears steal it, so we need to eat it for many days to stay alive.
Q: Oh, you said you also hide your young. Where do you hide them? Also, I have seen pictures of your young, why do they have those black spots?
A: We hide them in dens we make under rocks. The spots make it easier for them to be camouflaged against the spotted ground. They lose them when they are ready to take care of themselves though.
Q: When is that? What requirements do they have to have to leave the den?
A: They are ready to leave at roughly 15 months old. My kittens are about 12 months now. To leave they have to be able to hunt and eat meat. They can eat meat at 6 weeks old, but I nurse them for 3 months. Also, their spots have to disappear.
Q: So, why are you out here. doesn’t your husband get food while you stay with the young?
A: No! All cougars are single mothers. The male we mate with will stay with us for a few weeks while we are pregnant, but he will not meet his young.
Q: So do you have one winter where you hibernate with them? Is that weird?
A: We don’t have to worry about that. Many carnivorous animals hibernate, though cougars are one of the few who don’t. It is pretty inconvenient due to lack of food in the winter, but we just can’t go that long without eating.
Q: So, you’re a carnivore. How do you catch your prey?
A: I use a stock, pounce, kill method.
Q: What is that?
A: It is where I stock my prey from afar, and when they least expect it, I pounce on them, grab them by the neck and shake them until their body comes off.
Q: EEEEEWWWWW!!
A: It’s just a style of hunting, relax!
Q: How do you do that? How far away does the prey have to be? I heard you can pounce pretty far.
A: I can pounce from 20-40 feet away with a head start, but I prefer prey to be closer to make sure I can catch it. I can also jump 20 feet in the air. It comes in handy when I need to catch and spot prey.
Q: How do you do that?
A: I have very large paws. In fact, my species has the largest legs in proportion to the cat family, so it makes it a breeze. (jumps really high)
Q: Cool! Does your tail help you with that?
A: No, it helps me with something else. It is really long, so it helps me keep my balance. My tail is used as a counterbalance when I walk on a narrow space.
Q: So your tail is super flexible, right? I know that is made of muscles with no bones.
A: Your ignorance frightens me. My tail is an extension of my spine. Being a cat, our spines are naturally very flexible, so it doesn’t matter that there are bones. My ability to balance allows me to get on trees, so I can see prey. I used this method to spot the deer I killed for dinner. Speaking of which, my kittens are probably starving. I’ve got to get back to feed them dinner.
Q: Ok, you can go. I’ve got to set up my camp
A: (snort) dependant humans, we don’t need stupid tents, we live on the ground. Have fun sleeping in a comfy tent, but I am going to live in the wild for real.
Interview
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