One Cat Across the Americas: teacher key

Cougars, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. The cougar has many names and a huge range, and Florida panthers are coming back. GPS collars show where cougars go, how they hunt and how kittens grow up.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. How often did the Santa Cruz GPS device record a lion's location?
   • Every 20 minutes (answer)
   • Every 20 days
   • Once a year
2. When was the first lion, P-001, captured in the Santa Monica Mountains study?
   • July 19, 1938
   • July 19, 2002 (answer)
   • July 19, 2017
3. How many puma subspecies does the Cat Specialist Group say have been described?
   • Two hundred
   • One
   • Thirty-two (answer)
4. Pumas in southern Chile and Canada weigh twice as much as pumas in the tropics. What does that tell you?
   • Puma size can differ from place to place (answer)
   • All pumas weigh the same
   • Tropical pumas are the largest
5. What was done in the 1990s to help the Florida panther?
   • All panthers were moved to Texas
   • Eight female Texas panthers were released in Florida to breed (answer)
   • Nothing was done
6. What does solitary mean?
   • Very loud
   • Quick on land
   • Alone (answer)

Words

• subspecies: a smaller kind
• subadult: nearly grown
• chaparral: dry shrubland
• solitary: alone
• disperse: spread out
• Endangered: in danger