Their hind legs are longer and more muscular than the forelegs. The Eastern cougar has fur that is soft to the touch. They have a tawny color but become more tan during the summer months, and grayer during the winter. The under chin is a creamy white as well as the belly. Black coloring appears behind the ears, on the tip of the tail, and there are shadings on the face.
Ears are often short and erect with white coloring on the inside and black on the outside.
The young are more pale with a spotted coat and have rings around the tail until they are about six months old. Then they begin to loose their spots and their coat becomes darker. The Eastern cougar was once the most widely distributed land mammal in the Western Hemisphere. It ranged from all across the lower portion of Canada in the north, to Patagonia, South America, in the south. They used to live in the eastern United States and southern Canada from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Ontario, and lower Michigan to Tennessee and South Carolina.