Cougar

Cougar

NPS Photo

The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as mountain lion, is the one of the largest cats in North America and a top predator native to Mojave National Preserve. (The jaguar, which occurs in New Mexico and Arizona, is larger.) As part of predator-removal campaigns in the early 1900s, cougars and wolves were killed throughout the lower 48 states, including national parks.