Transcript Cougars - TeacherTube

Cougars
Cougars
Our research project
Mrs. Patterson’s first grade class
2009
Written by:
Helena
Donald
Garret
Kaylee
Emma
Robin
Cheyanne
Skylar
Dawson
Kyaira
Abby
Jesse
Carter
Elizabeth
Kaleb
Illustration by: Elizabeth
Cougars look like large cats.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
What do cougars look like?
pg 3
Chapter 2
What do cougars eat?
pg 9
Chapter 3
Where do cougars live?
pg 15
Chapter 4
How are cougars like people? pg 21
Cougars have spots when they are babies.
Illustration by: Emma
What do cougars look like?
The cougar is a cat and is much like a house
cat. It has the same long, smooth body. It even
sounds like a loud house cat. Cougars are related
to the cat family.
Some Cougars have spots and some don’t.
Cougars have two layers of fur; one has a pattern
and one without. Cougars have spots when they
are babies and they go away as they get older.
They can be grey or yellow.
Fur covers a cougar’s body. Cougars’ fur is
usually some shade of brown or gray with white
underneath.
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All cougars look a little different.
Illustration by: Abby
All cougars don’t look exactly alike because some
have black, yellow, grayish or reddish fur. The tip of the tail
is brown, There are patches of white on their face, throat,
chest and legs.
Cougars have eyes, a nose, mouth, a snout
and two ears. Cougars can see in the dark because their
pupils get big. Their eye color can be green or yellow.
Little cubs have blue eyes and they open them when they
are eight days old.
Cougar faces look like Cubby. Cougars paws have
pads like Cubby. Cougars take long naps like Cubby.
Cubby
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Illustrated by: Kaleb
Some Cougars can have green eyes.
Cougars have tails to help them steer, balance and swiftly
change direction when chasing prey. A cougars tail is about 3
feet long and has a black tip of fur at the end.
When cougars run their ears go back. When cougars sleep
they look like they are in a ball. When cougars walk their legs
move forward. When cougars climb, they use their paws and
claws. They dig their claws in the ground when they jump.
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Cougars like to eat porcupines.
Illustration by: Garret
What do cougars eat?
Cougars are predators or hunters. Cougars stalk prey
by moving slowly toward an animal and crouching. When
it gets close to its prey, it bounds and leaps on it. A cougar
has the strength and teeth to kill a healthy elk or moose up
to seven times its size.
Deer are the cougars favorite prey. A marmot can be a
good meal for a cougar. Cougars also eat porcupines.
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Cougars can eat deer, rabbits, marmots and porcupines.
Illustration by: Helena
Cougars kill with their teeth. They often kill big animals. They
hide their prey and come back to it to eat later when they get
hungry. It can last them several days to a week.
Cougars eat their food at nighttime after they find food and
kill it. Sometimes cougars use their claws or teeth to catch
their food. Cougars hide their food at daytime. At night time
they go back and eat the food they killed.
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Cougars re-visit their kills and eat from them for several nights.
Illustration by: Garret
Baby cougars depend on their mother to eat. For the first
few weeks, the cubs stay in the den and drink only mothers
milk. Cubs stay with their other for up to two years. By the age
of 20 to 22 months they have learned to stalk and kill their own
prey.
In the wild, cougars stalk and hunt wild animals. In the zoo, they
eat a carnivorous (meat) diet and enjoy enrichment and training
treats such as fish, mice, bones, hides and even whole carcasses
on occasion.
13
Cougars live in South America and North America. They
have different names like puma, mountain lion and panther
depending where they live.
Illustration by Skylar
Where do cougars live?
Cougars used to live all over North and South America. Now
there are not many left. They are found only in wilderness areas
far away from cities and main roads. They only live in the
western United States and a few places in Canada. They also
live in most parts of Mexico.
Many North American cougars live in mountains and forests.
But some live in swamps. Some in South America live in jungles
and rain forests.
15
A cougars habitat can be in rocky caves.
Illustration by Cheyanne
A cougars habitat is in a rocky cave in the mountains where
they can get food and water. Their den site may be under a rock
opening in a cave surrounded by thick briar brambles or a low
hanging branch. The cougar uses the cave for cover to protect
the mother and her cubs.
Illustration by Kyaira Meyle
17
Cougars live in caves.
Illustration by Carter
Although locally rare or extinct, the cougar is not yet an
endangered animal. The cougar is kept in some zoos in North
America for educational reasons. If you visit a cougar in a zoo,
you can see is sleep, eat and play in a manmade habitat much
like the one they live in in the wild.
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Cougars can live in a mountain habitat.
Illustration by Dawson
How are Cougars like people?
Cougars have babies.
Cougars have babies just like people. The babies are born
alive. Some cougars have two or three babies, but can have up
to six. Babies are born in the cougars den. The babies are
called kittens. The kittens drink their mothers milk. The mother
watches over her kittens for about two years.
Cougars try to stay clean.
Cougars stay clean by licking their fur. They get dirty with
things like mud and blood. Cats are very clean animals and
spend a lot of time grooming. Cougars from the same family
often wash each other to strengthen bonds and spread their
scent around.
21
Cougars like to lay in the sun.
Illustration by Kaylee
Cougars learn.
Baby cougars learn from their moms. They also learn from
play fighting each other when they are young. They learn by
watching their mother hunt and eat. When they grow up they will
be able to do it on their own.
Cougars hunt.
Cougars eat deer sheep and lambs. Cougars have to chase
the animals and kill them to eat them. Cougars hunt to eat their
food.
Cougars are mammals.
Cougars are mammals. A mammal is a warm blooded animal
that has a backbone, two pairs of limbs hair on its body and feeds
its young milk. Humans are also mammals.
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Cougars play in the snow.
Illustration by Jesse
Cougars like to have fun.
When the sun is high in the sky,
cougars snooze in trees or sun
themselves on rocky ledges or in
forest glades. Cougars climb well.
They run with great bursts of speed.
A cougar can leap sixteen feet from
the ground into a tree. That’s higher
than a basketball hoop.
Cougars need to sleep.
Cougars stay up all night
to hunt and eat food. They
take short naps in trees, on
the ground and in caves.
They are nocturnal which
means doing most of their
hunting at night.
Cougars do not hibernate.
Cougars do not hibernate in winter. Instead they have large
feet to enable them to walk and hunt easily on the snow.
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