Mountain lion tracks – detailed discussion and video

Here is a pretty full discussion on mountain lion tracks. It is from the standpoint of a person who loves the mountain lion and protecting it. I think people should enjoy the presence of the puma and seeing their tracks. It is nice to live in harmony with this impressive predator. I know that many Americans like to hunt the puma and I have to think of farmers and predation on livestock. But my wish is that humans try and find a way to live in harmony with this cat rather than enjoy killing it. I mention this because I guess tracking pumas by recognising their pawprints is one factor in finding them to kill them. Why not ‘shoot them’ with a good SLR camera and a 500 mm lens rather than a rifle? Far more constructive and pleasant.

TikTok video from ‘desertrelic’ (Elizabeth)

Here is a nice video from a person who appears to be respectful of the puma. She’s my kind of person. Respectful but not fearful. Knowledgeable and interested in learning. She enjoys the desert. I would too if I lived there.

 
Here are some stills from the video.

Mountain lion pawprint

The paw of the cougar or mountain lion looks like this:

cougar paw

The photo of the cougar’s paw above is by guppiecat (new window). To me it shows why the fourth toe pad (near the ground in the photo) doesn’t show sometimes in tracks or is less pronounced – it sometimes protrudes a little less.

Kim Cabrera says this about the mountain lion paw print:

  • the two front toes are not lined up at their tips as is the case for a canine track (e.g. wolf). The longest toe is the same as our longest finger on our hands (although this varies in humans). You can tell whether the track is from the left or right leg. As the toes taper back at the outside edge of the paw if the tapering is on the left, the track is made by the left leg and so on.
  • the leading edge of the pad behind the toes (heel pad) has an indentation.
  • while the back edge of the heel pad has two indentations.
  • front paw tracks are usually larger than those made by the hind legs.
  • the toe pads are tear drop shaped.

mountain lion tracks
The above picture is extracted from Texas Parks and Wildlife field guide (I provide a link in thanks and acknowledgment), which says that large hunting dogs can leave tracks bigger than those of the mountain lion but the heel pad of a dog is smaller. Another distinguishing trait is that the Mountain lion’s toes are tear drop shaped as mentioned and spaced widely compared to the dogs more rounded shaped toes and which are less widely spaced. Also, dog tracks normally show nail marks while the mountain lion doesn’t unless running. A cougar’s nail marks are also sharper and narrow than the dog’s.

Mountain lion tracks leave a heel pad track that is 2-3 inches wide (front) and 1.75-2 inches wide for hind legs. A particular characteristic is the three distinct lobes divided by two indentations of the hind (back) edge of the heel pad. Bobcat tracks are considerably smaller. The front being rarely wider than 1.25 inches.

Here are a series of photos of paw prints taken in various places by different people:

mountain lion tracks 1
The photographer says that these tracks were in the the Santa Cruz mountains. The cat was probably moving briskly as these are claw marks.
mountain lion tracks 2
Some more mountain lion tracks in Santa Cruz mountains.
by sbisson
mountain lion tracks 3
Photographer (Love Earth Photography) says, “They look like mountain lion tracks in the snow! Grace Lake in Shingletown, California”.
mountain lion tracks 4
As for the picture left.
mountain lion tracks 5
Mountain lion tracks? Photo by BM01
mountain lion tracks 6
Photo by s_mestdagh – taken on the photographer’s property – Boulder, Colorado
mountain lion tracks 7
As above right.
mountain lion tracks 8
Wonderfully clean tracks in the snow. These seem to be perfectly formed tracks with even the subtle indentations  on the paw pad visible.
By Debbie_V
mountain lion paw print
The photographer describes this as a mountain lion paw print.

Pawprint in rock

mountain lion tracks

Photo by intuitive cat published under: Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic CC license. These tracks seem to be set in rock. The photographer says, “these are about 2.5 to 3 inches across. Mule deer tracks can be seen on the right “. The photograph was taken in Zion National Park (marked by the red push pin on the map below):

Map picture

Where?

Where are you likely to see mountain lion tracks? Well, this cat’s distribution or range is very wide, the widest of all the cats in the Americas. See map below. The picture is a thumbnail so please click on it. It is published under Wikimedia® creative commons license = Attribution-ShareAlike License. The author of the original uncropped version is: Zoologist (new window).

Puma-range-distribution

It can be found in the following countries: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, United States, Venezuela.

I am indebted to the following in preparing this post on mountain lion tracks:

  1. Flickr photographers
  2. www.bear-tracker.com
  3. Wild Cats of the World
  4. Texas Parks and Wildlife
  5. TikTok lady Elizabeth

…thank you.

Please tell me your experiences in a comment

A word about hunting

What to look for when searching for mountain lion tracks? First please note this. If you are learning about the tracks of this big cat for hunting purposes, I beg you to reconsider. Hunting is prohibited in much of South America and California but population numbers are declining because, in part, hunting is legal in much of western US. They are basically persecuted by people. This cat is often relatively small (in Colorado males weigh about 60 kg = 9.4 stones, the weight of a smallish woman in America) and can be chased away (and if you think that you have to defend yourself from an attack). Plus, they are gentle cats and inclined to run from humans not attack. Better to enjoy its presence in the wild rather than kill it for pleasure. Finally, attacks are extremely rare: 14 in 117 years in California, for example (see Mountain lion attacks in California).

Names

The mountain lion has several names as you might know. It can cause confusion. Other names are:

  • Puma (the more scientific name and one used by the authors of the book, Wild Cats Of The World)
  • Cougar
  • Panther, although this is used generally to mean a cat of uniform colour and mainly the black (melanistic) leopard. The name Panther became corrupted to Painter in the southern states of the USA.
  • Lion (by Spanish speaking people in South America)
  • Catamount (after “cat of the mountain”)

From Mountain Lion tracks to Wild Cat Species

What Other Visitors Have Said

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page…

Mountain Lon Tracks in New York State?  I live in Binghamton NY (New York state) right on the edge of PA (
for Europeans PA stands for Pennsylvania). My husband and I walk my dog in the back of …

Cougars Alive and Well in Louisiana  Around 1998 while bowhunting whitetail deer on a public Wildlife Management Area, namely Red River WMA located in central Louisiana I spotted an approximately …

Black Panther at Dale Hollow, Ky  We lived close to the Ky state park, Dale Hollow. About 30 years (1981) ago my young son and I was driving home when we watched a Black Panther cross the …

Black Cats in Kentucky.  I live in Eastern Kentucky (Lawrence County) and all my life I have heard members of my family talk about sightings of the Black Panther.

My grandmother …

Regular cougar sighting in North Carolina  I live in the state of North Carolina approximately 430 meters from the Peedee river. I own 68 acres of land right next to wildlife.

I have been seeing …

Fresh Cougar Tracks  While fly-fishing on the Jemez River in New Mexico, I entered the river’s narrow canyon and headed upstream. In actuality, this canyon is known as a lava …

What is the possibility of being attacked by a mountain lion?  I spend many hours in the hills and woods, especially in the Summer. Several of my neighbors have seen two large black cats, for four or five years, in …

Is this a Cougar track?  Found these tracks on our property. I had some hunters tell me that they saw a cougar while hunting this last fall. (Needless to say, they found somewhere …

Cougars in Randolph County, NC  We have Mountain Lions in Randolph County, NC. I saw my first one in the late ’70s. Broad shoulders and camel colored, it circled road kill as my headlights …

Is this a mountain lion track?  Hiking in the morning to the summit of El Cajon mountain in San Diego…took a picture of this track.

Kevin

Hi Kevin…. sorry it has taken …

I encountered a seven foot long oily black mountain lion  Dec. 2007: Mears, Michigan….Returning from Hart after breakfast at 8:30 am driving west to Silver Lake on B15 ridge road; I encountered an oily black …

Moutain Lion Tracks Millcreek Canyon Utah  Date: 12.25.2010. Place: Next to Millcreek river. Picnic grounds. There were deer tracks nearby as well.

Mrs. Metpet

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

19 thoughts on “Mountain lion tracks – detailed discussion and video”

  1. I live in Arkansas, and last week we had some trouble with calves being drug off and coverd with leaves and dirt…I found this track on a game trail. Can you tell me what it is?

    Reply
    • Michael, can I can you please re-upload two of the photos ensuring that they are a little bit smaller in size because unfortunately the photographs that you tried to load were a little too large and over 2,000,000 MB. Thanks for visiting by the way. I look forward to responding to your comment fully as soon as possible, hopefully within about 24 hours.

      Reply
  2. It’s actually a nice and helpful piece of information. I am glad that you simply shared this useful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

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