Each adult lion stakes out a home range by leaving markers. Along the edge of the range, a cougar will scrape together small piles of leaves, pine needles and twigs and urinate on them. These "scrapes" act as boundary markers. Generally, the cats respects the other's territorial rights. This behavior is called "mutual avoidance."
An adult male's home range often spans over 100 square miles. Females have smaller ranges-- between twenty to sixty square miles. In ideal habitat, such as the west side of the Sierra Nevada, as many as ten adult lions occupy the same 100 square mile area. Cougars do not usually have fixed dens, except for mothers with cubs. Typically, they spend the day in thick cover if in a forest, perhaps in a cave or under a overhang or in a rock fissure in more mountainous areas.
Current Distribution of
Mountain Lion Habitat in California is
Shown by Shaded Areas
Source: California Dept. of Fish & Game, 1995.
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