What is the name of that big, North American, wild cat?

[Deep13]

Poll question: What is the name of that big, North American, wild cat?

People seem to have different names for the big feline depending on where they are.

Poll result (34 votes)
cougar	(8 votes, 24%)	Vote
puma	(2 votes, 6%)	Vote
mountain lion	(20 votes, 59%)	Vote
panther	(0 votes, 0%)	Vote
catamount	(0 votes, 0%)	Vote
kitty, kitty, kitty...	(2 votes, 6%)	Vote
other, please state	(2 votes, 6%)	Vote

[underpants]

1. Larry

but his friends call him Debby

[Left Is Write]

2. Dino.

And he's guarding the kitten under my daughter's bed at the moment.

[Deep13]

3. Someone who finally appreciates my good taste.

[Deep13]

4. Puddy tat?

[pitohui]

5. i've always heard mountain lion

i think panther is the proper name used in written literature, for instance, we are always hearing of the trials and tribulations of the virtually extinct florida panther, i guess it would be silly to refer to this subspecies as a mountain lion tho consider the number of mountains they got in florida

[Lowell]

14. Whoa Pitohui! Our panthers are not gone yet

True the numbers are dwindling, but they are still here. In fact they have been discovered further north in the state than in previous decades. When I was a kid I heard one on the Withlachoocee River one night. Fifty years later, a few months ago, I actually got to see one in the wild in the glades. I've seen them twice in my lifetime here in Florida. We're doing everything we can to preserve them, except curb developing in their natural habitat. It would be a terrible thing to let these beautiful, magnificant cats die out.

[pitohui]

18. good to know it

if there is a mountain lion left in louisiana, i'd be mighty surprised, most people i've heard say they saw one or got one, it turned out to be a bobcat

i'm serious, a lil ole bobcat!

i realize they have scientists actively working on the florida panther tracking them, i was just reminded of a silly story of a friend who stayed with a hunter and thought he had a mountain lion in the freezer -- bobcat, of course, i don't know if it would even be legal anymore to hunt a mountain lion

[Lowell]

24. We have lots of bobcats

but you can easily tell the difference between them and a panther. Size, tail and distinctive facial markings. They are beautiful creatures.

[Twillig]

6. Gotta be Cougar!

How else could the Wazzu Coug's Coug it?

[underpants]

7. Mellencamp

[ceile]

8. In TX they're cougars.

Not that there's any left.....

[Deep13]

9. I've heard both cougar and mountain lion.

I'm aware of the other terms, but I never hear anyone using them.

A few years ago my grandfather told me to carry a 0.357 when hiking in the Pacific NW because of the big kitty. I told him if a mountain lion was determined to attack me I would be dead before I ever had a chance to draw a revolver. Imagine the stealth and athletic prowess of house cat scaled up to the size of a mountain lion.

[Phillycat]

10. In PA, they're cougars.

[Deep13]

11. Despite the presence of mountains. Interesting.

[Phillycat]

13. Well, you can't really call what we've got "mountains".

Not compared to the Rockies. Our East Coast mountains are old and worn-down. They're basically big hills.

[Mendocino]

26. Granted, some of those southern mountains might be big hills,

but the Presidential Range(New Hampshire) and Mount Kathadin in Maine are big mountains. I've been up them, just as equipped for going 10,000+ footers in the west, and glad I was.

On edit, I call them cougars.

[Oeditpus Rex]

12. Grumman, not North American

North American built the P-51 Mustang.

[Deep13]

15. I blow raspberries at you.

Grumman also built the LeM for project Apollo while N.A. built the Command Module.

[ashling]

16. Rachael Ray n/t

[Deep13]

17. Why, is she catty?

[Ptah]

19. Wilma and Wilbur Wildcat

[LeftyMom]

20. In California they are Mountain Lions.

We have quite a few of them here, both in the mountains and down into the foothills and the valley near the rivers and in preserves and such. Pretty much anyplace deer are.

[zanne]

21. Once, at my in-law's in the Berkshires...

I was sleeping on their screened-in porch when a noise woke me up. I turned on the light and a mountain lion was on the other side of screen about three feet away from me. I screamed and it ran away.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. I'm partial to puma myself

[hyphenate]

23. More than one of the above

I usually call one a mountain lion or cougar. Once in awhile, I just call it a big kitty.

[sarge43]

25. Pete (serious Looney Tunes aficionados will understand) n/t