Cougars do make a very distinguishable noise, much different from a roar. It is described in Young's book, the Mysterious American Cat, as a sort of scream. This scream can be heard up to two miles away in an open area. It is such a high pitched noise, that even though it may not initially be as loud as a roar decibel-wise, the sound travels much further. The cougar also purrs, as common with all cats, and has a variety of maternal calls as well as basic communications between mating adults, rival males, etc.
Naturalists call the male pumas tomcats.
A fully developed male can weigh up to 200 pounds, but this is by no means typical, because a female of a different subspecies of cougar could be larger than a male of another. However, the subspecies are dispersed throughout the continents with naturally overlapping ranges. Therefore, size differences are usually only noticed in subspecies in entirely different geographic regions. The puma ranges from 5.5 to 8 feet in length. While this may sound like a larger than life figure at the upper end, one must take into account the extremely long tail of the animal.