Reply #4: Hate to break it to ya, sport

[maddiejoan]

But Cougars and Mountain Lions ARE Puma.

specifically they are all "Puma concolor"

The nomenclature involved is regional dialect rather than separate species.

"The cougar (Puma concolor), also puma, mountain lion, panther, or painter depending on region, is a mammal of the Felidae family, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,<3> extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major New World habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the New World, after the jaguar, and the fourth heaviest in the world, along with the leopard after the tiger, lion, and jaguar, although it is most closely related to smaller felines."



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