Very stupid question here... how can you tell the difference between a cougar and a mountain lion.
p.s. and for heaven's sake, please don't say "well one's a cougar and the other is a mountain lion!"
Hiking and climbing in the whites in sub-zero conditions, not including windchill which was a toasty -50 degrees, we cooked up a pot of, get this, BEEF STEW... every hungry critter withing 30 miles was breaking the snow around our tent. For years I've been telling people that one of the critters was a mountain lion, but it looked a lot like a smaller version of what you pictured there.
I tried to take a photo but the battery in the nikon wouldn't work in the cold. Cold enough that we were throwing spoons of boiling water up in the air which turned into a plume of white before touching the ground. Oh and another thing... you guys will sympathise. Try peeing in those temps. It's like trying to get a frightened turtle to poke out it's head. It's like the little guy gets hit with that cold and retracts right back into the shell. Needless to say, there's a lot of tugging involved... and not the fun kind
BTW I understand what the animal lovers are saying. I'm one too. But I hunt and fish and even have a pheasant and quail club in PA so I can run maggie, my bird dog. I've tried hunting in DC but the police didn't really like that too much. I'm not going to try to sell anyone on hunting because the best shots you can take at an animal can sometimes be with a camera. But hunting brings out something deep, deep down inside us. SOmething we've long forgotten but still sorta need in a way. We are predators. We've always been predators. Picking up processed food at the grocery store just doesn't satisfy that primal (and healthy) urge. Well, okay, I guess that was a sales pitch but you understand what I mean?