Of special interest is the unusually high number of black or melanistic cougars reported in the province. Black cougars have been reported 42 times in Nova Scotia and 49 times in New Brunswick. In South America where the black form is endemic, it is considered very rare. The eastern cougar is known by many names-panther, painter, puma, mountain lion, or carcajou. The last documented cougar specimen taken in eastern North America was trapped in Maine near the Quebec border in 1938.
Males are considerably larger than females.
Cougars are loners-except during breeding or when mothers are accompanied by their kittens. Little is known about the breeding biology of the eastern cougar. Its western counterpart, however, will bear two to four kittens, generally in late winter or mid-summer. The kittens will stay with their mother, learning to hunt, until they are about a year old. Prior to the arrival of Europeans the cougar was one of the most common predators in the New World.