The Cougar is an ambush predator that relies on stealth to catch its prey. Its preferred habitat is large expanses of rugged rocky, wooded, or heavily vegetated terrain that is conducive to its style of hunting. Current habitat suitability assessment indicates that Kansas has little suitable habitat for a resident population. However, Cougars are adaptable and persist in some heavily developed areas today that would have been considered unlikely Cougar habitat a few decades ago. In addition, dispersing Cougars have been known to move through habitats of low suitability, including shortgrass prairie, intensive agricultural lands, and urban areas, and could potentially occur anywhere in Kansas.
Deer are usually the primary prey for adult Cougars, often comprising 60-80% of their diet. In certain regions, other wild ungulates including elk, bighorn sheep, and javelina are also important prey. Cougars also prey on a wide variety of small game, which are particularly important for younger or older animals inefficient at taking big game and apparently for dispersing animals. Raccoon, North American Porcupine, Coyote, domestic cat, and multiple raptor species were among the prey items of a Cougar that dispersed through Kansas. Cougars will prey on livestock, particularly sheep and goats. Predation on adult cattle and horses is rare, and investigations in Kansas indicate reports that are not verified by a biologist should be viewed skeptically.
Cougars are meticulous and often predictable in their manner of predation. They kill efficiently with a bite to the neck or head, drag their prey to overhead cover, and usually begin feeding in the chest cavity. The rumen is often removed and buried away from the initial feeding site. When done feeding, they cover the prey with leaves, grass, and other debris and often bed nearby. With larger prey, they create several cache sites as they uncover, drag to a new location, feed again, and cover the carcass. They do not drag or cache carcasses up trees.
Cougars are generally solitary except for mothers with kittens and associations leading up to and including mating. They''re capable of breeding throughout the year, but most kittens are born from April through September following about a 90 day gestation period. Usually 1-6 kittens are born, with 2 or 3 being most common. Kittens remain with their mother for 1 to 2.5 years, at which time these "subadults" set out to establish their own home range. Both sexes are capable of dispersing hundreds of miles, but males disperse more often and farther than females, which often establish home ranges near or even overlapping their mother''s. Cougars are capable of living more than 20 years, but few make it to 10 years in the wild.