Abstract
THOUGH the addition, a few days ago, of a young female puma to the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London introduces no novelty, we venture to direct the attention of ecologists to its arrival; for here is an animal with some very noteworthy aspects in its life history. The largest of the North, and the second largest of the South American Felid ¦, attaining a length of 7-8 ft., it displays a singular versatility in its powers of adjustment to environments standing in the strongest possible contrast. This much might be inferred from the fact that it ranges from Alaska to the extreme south of Patagonia, in this regard out-distancing any other mammal. In North America it feeds on deer, whenever they are to be had, and failing these, on such small animals as mice, and even snails. In South America it ascends the Cordilleras of Chile to a height of 10,000 ft. and in the Peruvian highlands similarly it is to be met with up to the snow-line. Here the guanacos are its prey. In the primeval forests of the Amazons it has taken to the trees, and bounds from bough to bough in prodigious leaps after monkeys: though it also hunts the tapir and other ground game. In the pampas it finds the rhea an easy prey. Unfortunately, it will attack both horses and sheep, and hence has excited no small animosity on that account. Naturally, in so wide a range, the typical tawny coloration, relieved only by an indistinct dorsal stripe, shows more or less marked colour-variations, but these are not sufficiently great to justify specific distinctions. The young, it is to be noted, are spotted, but their spots disappear in about six months, though traces may be found in much older animals. The name ‘mountainlion’ has been bestowed on it on account of a superficial likeness to the lion; but the puma has much shorter legs, a much longer tail and no mane.
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Puma at the London Zoo. Nature 132, 164 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132164b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132164b0