Originally Posted By: HereticThinking of getting serious about ML hunting. Will be trying to call them in.
Besides setting the call out farther than normal and using appropriate sounds, does anyone know when they breed?
Thanks!
Heretic,
From my research I have learned the following:
Cougars can and do breed at any time of the year. The farther north you travel in the US and into Canada they tend to breed from about December - March. However that is not a hard and fast rule and they females can start an estrus cycle at any time regardless of location.
The gestation period for cougars is about 90 days (give or take a week). I haven't found/read any scholarly data that suggested delayed gestation/fertilization, rather the data I've seen showed kittens being born throughout the year.
Thus, if your question is centered on when is the best time to use mating calls and screams, the answer is any time.
Male mountain lions with established territories have travel circuits that overlap with several females, allowing them greatest opportunity to breed and pass thier genetics forward. Since females can go into estrus at any time, an estrus call can certainly get the attention of a male at any time of the year.
Female cougars in an estrus cycle have been known to scream for hours and hours trying to attract a mate. Once joined by a male the courtship and breeding can last as long as 2 weeks, but most everything I read suggested about a single week was normal.
I have also read a few documents that said the breeding process was very vocal, and both the male and female mountain lions produced different sounds throughout their time together.
Additional note:
Some of the data I read showed that females who are beginning an estrus cycle will begin to give off scent signals to the male lions in her urine. The can happen for several days preceeding her cycle and normally has the effect of attracting a mate to her close proximity just before her cycle begins, thus once the cycle begins her man is not far away.
I haven't figured out an effective way to replicate this behavior, thus I still need to scout for lions and then call into areas that are known to have them. It's still a crap shoot but the scouting will increase success rates.
Here is a video from one of our trail cameras of a female scent marking on a boulder and then checking her mark:
Good luck to you this season,
Mark Healy