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Cougars show how to survive extinction

Close up of a cougar

The goal of our study was to examine the possibility that dietary factors can explain the cougar's survival (Source: iculizard/iStockphoto)

Varied diet Finicky eaters usually do not survive mass extinction events, suggests a new study on prehistoric big cats.

Cougars, which will eat meat, guts, bones — the proverbial whole enchilada, survived a mass extinction event 12,000 years ago, while their finicky cousins the saber tooth cat and American lion bit the dust.


"Before the Late Pleistocene extinction, six species of large cats roamed the plains and forests of North America," says co-author Larisa DeSantis, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University. "Only two — the cougar and jaguar — survived. The goal of our study was to examine the possibility that dietary factors can explain the cougar's survival."

She and co-author Ryan Haupt of the University of Wyoming analysed the teeth of ancient cougars, sabre-tooth cats and American lions excavated from the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.


Wear patterns





"This suggests that the Pleistocene cougars had a 'more generalized' dietary behaviour," says DeSantis. "Specifically, they likely killed and often fully consumed their prey, more so than the large cats that went extinct."


Finicky socialised house cats, of which there are many, generally don't have to worry. As long as an owner is around to provide tasty treats, they'll probably live on.

Tags: animals, fossils, palaeontology, mammals