News & Media

Contact: Aimee Yamamori, Director of Public Relations, Phoenix Zoo (602) 914-4305 or pager (602) 223-8222
Date: January 29, 2008
PHOENIX ZOO DEBUTS MOUNTAIN LION CUBS

The Phoenix Zoo is pleased to announce the addition of two five month-old female mountain lion cubs to their animal family. The cubs were brought to the Zoo by South Dakota Wildlife Division of Game, Fish and Parks after the cubs were found orphaned in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The cubs were kept in mandatory quarantine after arriving at the Zoo and have spent the past week becoming accustomed to their new home. The cubs are now on exhibit, though they are not used to seeing people and will take some time getting comfortable with their new surroundings.

The Phoenix Zoo asked for the public's help to choose names for these cubs. In celebration of Super Bowl XLII in Arizona, the Zoo has partnered with the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee to provide name suggestions. For about a week, the public has been voting at azsuperbowl.com and the winning names are Eli and Brady.

Mountain lions, also known as pumas, cougars and panthers are found in Arizona. They have one of the largest ranges of any wild cat and can be found all over the western United States. Mountain lions are very secretive animals that tend to avoid human contact. Encounters are rare and usually not threatening. In the last 100 years, only 14 fatal cougar attacks occurred on the entire North American continent. They generally avoid one another as well with the exception brief mating times and mothers and their kittens. In the wild, kittens will usually stay with the mother for up to two years, and are completely dependent on her for food.

Mountain lions can live up to 25 years in captivity and the Phoenix Zoo's last female mountain lion was 17 years-old when she died in 2007. Adult females can grow up to seven feet-long and will weigh 65-90 pounds. The Zoo's two new female mountain lions are on exhibit on the Zoo's Arizona Trail. The Phoenix Zoo is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is located at 455 N. Galvin Parkway in Papago Park. 

 Mountain Lions

• The mountain lion is also known as the Cougar, puma, catamount, screamer, devil cat, and silver lion.
• Historically the mountain lion ranged throughout the western hemisphere from northern British Columbia to Patagonia and from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast; the most widely distributed wild cat. Today their range in North America has been limited to the western half of the United States.
• Mountain lions are very secretive animals that tend to avoid human contact. Encounters are rare and usually not threatening. In the last 100 years, only 14 fatal cougar attacks occurred on the entire North American continent. They generally avoid one another as well with the exception brief mating times and mothers and their kittens.
• Mountain lion gestational period is three months, producing anywhere from one to six kittens.
• Kittens stay with their mother for one to two years, almost completely dependent on her for food.
• Adult males can be more than eight ft long and weigh 130-150 lbs; females can be greater than seven ft. long and weight 65 - 90 lbs.
• Mountain lion diets predominantly focus on white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose, peccary, and bighorn sheep. They will also prey on, rabbits, coyotes, and sheep.
• A mountain lions life span is approximately 12 years. The Phoenix Zoo last housed a female mountain lion that lived for 17 years.
• Mountain lions have a stationary hyoid apparatus (a bone near the base of the skull that supports the floor of the mouth), allowing them to purr, but not to roar.