Food and feeding habits

From Verts and Carraway, Land Mammals of Oregon

Cougars are most active from dusk to dawn, but it is not unusual for cougars to hunt anytime during the day. Adult cougars typically prey on deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and wild sheep, with deer being the preferred and most common prey. Other prey species, especially for younger cougars, include raccoons, coyotes, rabbits, hares, small rodents, and occasionally pets and livestock (e.g. goats, sheep, and chickens). A large male cougar living in the Cascade Mountains kills a deer or elk every 9 to 12 days, eating up to 20 pounds at a time and burying the rest for later. Except for females with young, cougars are lone hunters that wander between places frequented by their prey, covering as much as 15 miles in a single night. Cougars rely on short bursts of speed to ambush their prey. A cougar may stalk an animal for an hour or more.

Feeding areas (caches)

Cougars usually carry or drag their kills to a secluded area under cover to feed, and drag marks are frequently found at fresh kill sites. After killing a large animal and having eaten its fill, a cougar often will cover the remains with debris such as snow, grass, leaves, sticks, or soil. Even where little debris is available, bits of soil, rock, grass or sticks may be used to cover the carcass. The cougar may remain in the immediate vicinity of its kill, guarding it against scavengers and eating it over a period of six to eight days. (Meat becomes rotten quickly in the summer and male cougars have to patrol their territory. Often these males will make a kill, feed until full, leave to patrol the area, and return to feed on the carcass days later.)

Do not approach or linger around a recently killed or partially covered deer or elk.

Tracks

Cougar tend to leave “soft” tracks, meaning the animals make very little impact on the ground, and their tracks may be virtually invisible on packed earth or crusted snow. In addition, to preserve their sharpness for gripping prey, these animals keep their claws retracted most of the time, and so claw marks are rarely visible in their tracks.

Because cougars carry their heavy tail in a wide U shape at a normal walk, in snow, the lowermost portion may leave drag marks between each print.

Droppings

Cougars generally cover their droppings with loose soil. When visible, their droppings typically resemble those of most species in the dog and cat families. However, cougars have well developed premolars that can slice through bone and hide. Therefore, their droppings often show chunks and fragments of chewed bone and considerable hair from the hide. Members of the dog family gnaw on bones but usually don’t chew them up into cut fragments.

WDFW

Cougar droppings are generally cylindrical in shape, segmented, and blunt at one or both ends. An average dropping measures 4 to 6 inches long by 1 to 1½ inches in diameter. The size of the dropping may indicate the size of the cougar.

Daybed sites

A cougar’s daybed is used for rest, protection from the weather, and to raise young. Cougars don’t use dens like bears do. They may settle down for up to six weeks while the kittens are immobile, but afterward are almost always on the move, making daybeds as they go. In rough terrain, daybeds are usually in a cave or a shallow nook on a cliff face or rock outcrop. In less mountainous areas, day beds are located in forested areas, thickets, or under large roots or fallen trees. Daybeds are frequently near kill sites. No day beds preparation takes place.

Scratching posts

Like house cats scratching furniture, cougars mark their territory boundaries by leaving claw marks on trees, stumps, and occasionally fence posts. Claw marks left by an adult cougar will be 4 to 8 feet above the ground and consist of long, deep, parallel scratches running almost vertically down the trunk. These gashes rarely take off much bark; tree-clawing that removes much bark is probably the work of a bear. (Bobcat claw marks are normally 2 to 3 feet above the ground; domestic cat scratching occurs at a height of about 1½ to 2 feet).

Calls

Cougars hiss, purr, mew, growl, yowl, chirp, and cry. The most sensational sounds they make are the eerie wailings and moans heard at night during mating season, especially when competing males have intentions toward the same receptive female. Such wails have been likened to a child crying, a woman’s scream, and the screeching of someone in terrible pain.