Cougar History & Ecology | Part 2 | Range There are many different names for cougars, and this is actually evidence of how far they once ranged. They were present from southern Canada and Alaska through the entire lower forty eight, into Central America, and all the way down to the tip of South America in Patagonia. This variety exists because, in the days before mass communication, every settlement had its own way of referring to cougars. In the eastern United States, people tended to use catam