[AnotherUnixGeek]

3 or 4 months old? Are mountain lions even weaned at that age?

[skr]

Something seems off about the description. An article about a young cougar that wandered into a bakery listed it as 4 months old and 50 pounds, and it wasn’t even healthy. If this one one was 24 pounds after being scavenged, it could have easily been closer to 40 or 50 pounds and far more dangerous than a 24 pound kitten.

It’s a little suspicious that they’re trying to make this cat into a cute and cuddly kitten that was killed by the big bad human. The man certainly looked injured by more than tiny claws.

They are weaned at about 2 or 3 months and stay with the mother for 13 to 24 months. This is all general observation. Animals don’t read textbooks and sometimes are left to their own devices early if their mother isn’t Mom of the Year.

[daniel1212]

The mountain lion at issue is estimated to have weighed 35-40- bs before scavengers ate it.

The average lowest weigh of adult female mountain lions is 64lbs, thus this could be a juvenile female.

Adult male Bobcats can range in weight from 6.4 to 18.3 kg (14 to 40 lb), with an average of 9.6 kg (21 lb); females at 4 to 15.3 kg (8.8 to 33.7 lb), with an average of 6.8 kg (15 lb).

For comparison, while rare, even bobcats can attack humans. Bobcats Attack Two at Death Valley National Park

Mountain bikers in fatal cougar attack did everything right, authorities ... and Attacks have become more common

More on names:

"Cougars, scientifically known as Puma concolor, can also be called a puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on where you are geographically. In fact, the cougar holds the Guinness Book record for the animal with the most names, with more than 40 English variations. Regardless of whether you call it a mountain lion or cougar, the babies are referred to as cubs." - https://sciencing.com/baby-cougars-8582162.html

Female cougars take care of their babies until they are old enough to take care for themselves. and baby cougars are called cubs or kittens. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma

The etymology of cub is unknown whereas kitten derives from late Middle English kitoun, ketoun, from an Anglo-Norman French variant of Old Frenchchitoun, diminutive of chat ‘cat.’ (