NATURE’s Trail of the Cougar profiles the “king cat” and its struggle for survival.

Hunted almost to extinction over the past three centuries, cougars are making a comeback today, with some 30,000 living in the wilds of North and South America. But still they face uncertain prospects, as human encroachment continues to shrink their natural habitats. Doggedly tracking these magnificent animals, once known as the “king cat,” filmmaker Ron Shade provides an incisive look at their prospects for survival in Trail of the Cougar.

Frequently referred to as mountain lions in some regions, cougars formerly roamed freely throughout the Americas, staking out the largest habitat of any New World mammal. But with their wilderness homes continuing to disappear, the normally secretive and solitary creatures often wander into human communities today, with sometimes amusing and sometimes tragic results.

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Online content for Trail of the Cougar was originally posted December 2002.