Which is correct: cougar, puma, mountain lion or panther?

Question

"Puma concolor", especially such as what you would find in the Yukon.

Answer 1

All of the above, but I generally don't call them panthers myself, since some people use that word to refer to melanistic leopards and jaguars.

Answer 2

All, I think what you call it depends on where you live.

I usually call it a cougar or mountain lion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar

The cougar (Puma concolor), also puma, mountain lion, panther, or painter depending on region,....

...The cougar holds the Guinness record for the animal with the highest number of names, presumably due to its wide distribution across North and South America. It has over 40 names in English alone....

Answer 3

Common names for Puma concolor include puma, cougar, mountain lion, catamount and so on. The subspecies found in Florida is often called the Florida panther, but it is just as accurate to call it puma, cougar, etc. However, when referring to this animal one should always specify FLORIDA panther, and not just say 'panther' - panther is the common term for a melanistic (black) leopard, and referring to a puma in this way could cause confusion.

Answer 4

All of them. You can refer it in any of those ways.

Answer 5

The first answer is correct, a cougar (Puma concolor), is also known as puma, mountain lion, panther, catamount, fire cator, american lion, deer tiger, brown tiger, night screamer, or painter depending on region that you live in.

They have so many names mostly because they have such a large range, and people from different countries have called them different things. Early Spanish explorers to North and South America called it leon (lion) and gato monte (cat of the mountain), from which we get the name "mountain lion." Puma is the name the Incas gave this cat in their language. Cougar seems to have come from an old South American Indian word, cuguacuarana, which was shortened to cuguar and then spelled differently. And panther is a general term for cats that have solid-colored coats, so it was used for pumas as well as black jaguars.

For the 'book', I'd call it a Puma, as it is in the Scientific name.

Answer 6

There was only one cougar documented in the Yukon.

First Confirmation of Cougar, Puma concolor, in the Yukon

http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:3T_...

No panthers, there are people who have claimed seeing a mountain lion

http://www.taiga.net/yourYukon/col389.ht...