Like other cats, the mountain lion stalks its prey, sprinting after it if it attempts to flee. Then, pouncing on the animal's back with a powerful leap that knocks it to the ground, the mountain lion kills its prey with a single bite to the nape of the neck. Mountain lions have large hunting territories, and they eat most kinds of animals. Throughout their range, however, deer is their principal food. In the absence of deer, they eat anything available, including cattle and other domestic livestock.
Mountain lions can run very fast over short distances, but they tire quickly.
If an animal survives a mountain lion's first attack, it generally escapes. Mountain lions rarely share hunting territories and usually avoid each other, but they make no attempt to defend their own territories or take over those of others. The territories of male mountain lions may overlap those of females, enabling the males to detect when females are ready to mate. During a 14-day period of mating, a male and female will break their normally solitary habits to hunt together and sleep next to each other. The female later gives birth to two to six kittens in a carefully hidden den, located between rocks or in a cave.