Do pumas eat snakes?

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Puma. Picture in pubic domain.

Having read the entirety of the section on the feeding ecology of pumas (mountain lions) in the best book on the wild cats, Wild Cats Of The World, I have failed to find any reference to pumas eating snakes. Google can’t help me either. I can’t find a single image of a puma with a snake on Google Images.

That does not mean it never happens but it must mean that it is exceedingly unlikely. Snakes are not the sort prey animals that pumas chase and kill. In North America deer make up 60-80 percent of the puma’s diet.

However, pumas are opportunistic predators. They kill and eat prey in size from mice to moose and are individualistic in their preferences for prey. Also the pumas of Hato Piñero, Venezuela, not infrequently prey on reptiles (almost 10 percent of their scats contained reptiles). Snakes are reptiles. And the question is, do pumas eat snakes? The question does not ask if pumas attack snakes. If a dead or dying snake presents itself to a hungry puma I’d expect it to be eaten.

Therefore I am not going to write-off the possibility of pumas eating the occasional snake. I will now ask any visitor who has first hand knowledge of this to make a comment to assist me by adding to the page. Thanks in advance if you have responded to the request!

SOME MORE ON PUMA ECOLOGY:

Do mountain lions eat mice?

Yes, is the very positive answer to the question above because mountain lions (pumas) 'kill and eat prey ranging in ...
Read More

Puma cat – all aspects with links to more

This is a leading or links page on the Puma cat. The links lead to other pages that expand on ...
Read More

Puma hunting, feeding and social organisation – comprehensive coverage

This page discusses puma hunting feeding and social organisation. Cats generally are opportunistic predators. This means a wide range of ...
Read More

Highest-living mammalian predators on land: snow leopard and puma

The puma a.k.a. mountain lion and cougar, together with the snow leopard are the two mammalian predators living at the ...
Read More

40-pound midget, subadult female mountain lion killed by a porcupine

This is the sad story of a mountain lion that conservationists had labelled F99. She was a midget mountain lion ...
Read More

Pictures and video of mountain lion with probable domestic or stray cat in its mouth

If you were researching whether mountain lions attack and kill domestic, stray and feral cats, this photo and video probably ...
Read More

Pictures of a puma on an iceberg off the Upsala glacier in Patagonia’s Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina

These pictures and video are all over the internet and you can see why because no one has seen a ...
Read More

Injuries incurred when pumas attack prey can ultimately kill them

In one study, 27% of natural mortality of the puma was related to injuries sustained while trying to capture prey ...
Read More

Tesla autopilot detects mountain lion running across road (video)

Townsend, Montana, USA: This short video neatly sums up a lot about the relationship between America's mountain lion (puma, cougar) ...
Read More