Mountain lion lounging in a cottonwood tree during the heat of the day.
Location: Rooney Road, south of Golden, CO. As the crow flies, about 3 miles from the Mountain-Prairie Regional Office.
Credit: Justin Shoemaker
Photo Contest Entry #63
Date 28 May 2012, 03:38
Source 8th Place - Mountain Lion
Author USFWS Mountain-Prairie
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:8th_Place_-_Mountain_Lion_(7487178290).jpg

The cougar (Puma concolor), also commonly known as the mountain lion, puma, panther, or catamount, is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae native to the Americas. Its range, from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes of South America, is the greatest of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. The cougar is more closely related to smaller felines, including the domestic cat (subfamily Felinae), than to any species of subfamily Pantherinae, of which only the jaguar is native to the Americas.
Order: Carnivora
Family: Felidae
Genus: Puma
Species: Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)
Synonyms: Felis concolor
Subspecies:
Puma concolor anthonyi - Eastern South American cougar – eastern South America
Puma concolor cabrerae - Argentine cougar – central South America
Puma concolor concolor – Northern South American cougar - northern South America
Puma concolor coryi (Incerta sedis) – Florida panther - south Florida
Puma concolor costaricensis - Costa Rican cougar – Central America
Puma concolor couguar – North American cougar - North America
Puma concolor puma – Southern South American cougar - southern South America