Do mountain lions eat coyotes?

Mountain lions eat pretty much anything that is available and their prey animals range in size from mice to moose. If an animal puts itself in a vulnerable position mountain lions will try and kill it but a mountain lion hurt and incapacitated in an attack on a prey animal will die. Therefore, they will be selective. 

Mountain lion caught in camera trap by National Park Services AP.

And if there are good alternatives to coyotes, I would suggest that they will select those animals instead. The coyote is a resourceful animal. The point I'm getting to is that the excellent reference book that I have on the prey animals that the mountain lion eats does not specify coyotes. They do specify "other carnivores" as prey animals.

I'm going to have to stick my neck out and say that mountain lions will, on occasion, eat coyotes when the opportunity arises but they will select the easiest prey they can find as a priority which will include mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose, unclassified deer, elk, livestock and so on.

There are very, very few mountain lion attacks on people in the entire history of humans' relationship with the animal and when they occur it is usually a child or a woman. A mother might be defending her cubs. They don't attack humans to eat. Americans are infinitely more likely to die of a domestic dog attack than a puma attack.

Mountain lion has an animal in its mouth. What is it?

People are trying to figure out what animal this mountain lion has in its mouth. It is a nighttime kill captured on a camera trap. The quality is poor hence the difficulty in deciding what the animal is. I have lightened the photograph to try and provide more information. The photo was taken on 12th September 2020 at 20:58 and the temperature was 11 degrees Celsius or 53 degrees Fahrenheit.

 Mountain lion has an animal in its mouth. What is it? Credit see below.

The guesses on Facebook are:

• Ringtailed cat
• Large boar raccoon
• Goat
• What about a bobcat? - My suggestion

It is about the right size for a bobcat and pumas are known to kill bobcats. The photo was taken in Terrell County, Texas, USA and is provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife - Trans-Pecos Wildlife District.

They say that Borderlands Research Institute has identified at least 14 different prey animals in the diet of West Texas mountain lions. Here is the FB post. These sometimes stop working please note. If it has stopped - sorry!

Lions are opportunistic, preying on a wide range of animals. Work conducted by Borderlands Research Institute...

Posted by Texas Parks and Wildlife - Trans-Pecos Wildlife District on Thursday, January 14, 2021

Can a cougar kill a human?

Yes, a cougar can kill a human. But it is exceedingly rare for a cougar to attack a human and most often when it does happen the cougar attacks a child that is unsupervised. The cougar or mountain lion is not a small cat but neither is the cougar that big. The weight of the cougar varies between 55 and 176 pounds taking into account females and males. It is the 4th largest wildcat after the jaguar, lion and tiger.

It is a relatively shy and retiring wildcat. I write about the cougar attack on this page. The page includes ways to avoid an attack. There have been very few mountain lion attacks especially considering the fact that cougar and human occupy the same territory. In California there have been 14 attacks in 117 years and most led to injuries not death. On occasion cougars suffer from rabies that causes the attack. In which case it is not a malicious, unprovoked attack.

I am sure that there are many people (sport hunters?) who think differently. Too many cougars are shot needlessly through our unjustified fear.