Cougar Country Cougars prefer rocky terrain, dense brush and semi-open forests. The other essential ingredient, of course, is deer and elk, the cougar’s main prey. The majority of Washington’s cougars reside in the eastern Okanogan Highlands, the Selkirk Mountains and the Blue Mountains of eastern Washington, as well as in the Cascade Mountains, Olympic Mountains and Willapa Hills of western Washington. Traditionally, cougars were associated almost exclusively with deer and elk herds, but as cougar have expanded their range and adapted to semi-urban areas, smaller mammals like racoons, coyotes and opossums supplement their diet. Cougars are territorial animals and maintain home ranges of up to 100 square miles. The lions mark their territories with “scratch hills” or scrapes — leaves, grasses and dirt they rake together into small piles and urinate on. Most active at dawn and dusk, cougars are lone hunters designed for short bursts of speed. They prefer to ambush their prey and often drag their kills to secluded spots where they will eat it and then cover, or cache, the remains for later.

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