Above is SoWePa about 4 months ago, and below, how he'll look fully grown.
Whether called Cougar, Puma, or Mountain Lion, these large felines can be found throughout the Americas. The Western Mountain Lion is the largest of them, males weighing in at between 125 and nearly 200 pounds! Massive feet accented by retractable, sickle-shaped claws couple with powerful jaws and flesh-tearing fangs to make them fearsome predators. It is believed that the lateral strike of a cougar snaps the neck of the deer it sometimes preys upon, killing it instantly. Like most all of the large cats, Cougars are solitary, only coming together to breed. This contributes to their reputation for being elusive. If you have the rare circumstance of contronting one of these cats in the wild, your best course of action is to raise your arms above your head, waving them about and yell loudly. Bang things, make alot of noise, so that you appear more fearsome than they are. Above all else, do not run from them, for this will certainly trigger their hunting instincts, something which is obviously to be avoided.
This is Bobbi, a bobcat who shares my home with me. Her latin name is Lynx Rufus, demonstrating her close relation to the lynx population throughout the world. Bobbi came to me via my local game warden, having been confiscated. People took her from the wild at just a couple weeks old, and did a partial declawing of her, rendering her unreleaseable.
Although she lives with me as a "housecat," Bobbi stoutly refuses to have anything to do with cat, dog or people foods. She eats chicken, quail and occassional beef or horse meat, all raw.
For her relative size, Bobbi can be quite a handful when she doesn't like something, and although I enjoy her company, I do not recommend Bobcats as pets.
To either side of this text are falcons. The one on the left is an Anatum
Peregrine, the one on the right a Prairie. Falcons are the Top-Guns of
the sky, taking pitches several hundred to as much as 3 thousand feet or
more, then dropping their heads and falling from the sky after their prey.
The stoop, as this controlled fall is called, is a tremendous thing to
watch. The falcons have been clocked at well over 160 miles per hour! Although
each type of falcon (and each individual) has its own hunting style, peregrines
have been filmed simply flying into the game and colliding with it at their
breastbone. That the peregrine is not injured is a wonder, and leaves scientists
astounded.
The birds on either side of this text are hawks. To the left is a Ferruginous Hawk , which is a member of the broad-winged family, as are Red-tailed Hawks, properly called Buteos. They eat anything from field mice to rabbits, and occasionally kill gamebirds as well
To the right is a European Goshawk, a member of the short-winged family more properly known as Accipiters. These lightning-quick and agile hunters usually lurk in forested areas, eating a variety of birds.