November 2019 • Nebraskaland 21
Mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, and other points west.
In 1995, the Nebraska Legislature classified mountain
lions as game animals. A provision in state statute allows
individuals to kill mountain lions if they are threatening
their lives or property.
Game and Parks has established management programs
that meet those statutory obligations and are designed to
curtail negative interactions between humans and the cats,
and has gone to great lengths to gain public input about
the species, usually not having to work too hard to get it. It
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Mountain lion anatomy makes it an efficient
ambush, or stalking, predator, and it prefers to hunt
in areas of dense cover. Adult cats can bound 40 feet
while running and can leap 15 feet into a tree, but
their small lungs are not efficient for long chases.
Speed comparisons lend clues to their diet. A cougar
can "exit the chute" at 50 mph, but cannot sustain
that pace for long. In comparison, the rarely preyed
upon pronghorn, with their big throats and lungs,
can sprint more than 60 mph at long distances over
an open plain while the favored forest-loving white-
tailed deer tops out at about 30 mph.
