
Whether you call it a cougar, mountain lion or ghost cat, there’s no denying that the mountain lion is quite a large cat – although she is not a big cat. Native to North and South America, these stealthy predators can be found almost everywhere in the Western Hemisphere. Despite this, you may not know exactly how big they are. That’s where a mountain lion size comparison like this comes in handy.
If you’ve never seen anyone face to face (and hopefully haven’t!), you may not know how big a cougar is. After all, from photos alone, it can be hard to tell if they’re just a little bigger than your average house cat or if they’re the size of a real lion.
This mountain lion size comparison is designed to give you the best idea of how big a mountain lion is from a safe distance. By comparing them to humans, domestic cats, bobcats and even dogs, this quick read will help you learn the size of one of the largest wild cats in America.
How big is a mountain lion?

Have you ever seen the comic punchline of two kids in a trench coat acting like an adult? If you want to have a clear idea of how big a cougar is, imagine that, but with about 3 Maine Coon cats instead.
At the shoulder, a mountain lion is anywhere from 2 to 3 feet tall. However, their surprising feature comes from their height. Measuring 8 feet from nose to tail, mountain lions rival some of the largest big cats, including leopards, lions, and tigers.
Despite their large size, cougars are generally quite light. This is a combination of their mainly deer diet and their need to be quiet and unobtrusive. A healthy adult mountain lion can weigh as little as 64 pounds or as much as 220 pounds, creating great diversity in the overall average size of the mountain lion.
Such a large body needs large feet to support it. Mountain lions have round, asymmetrical legs that rarely show the claws in the prints they leave. On average, their feet are nearly 4 inches in diameter.
Human vs Mountain Lion Size Comparison

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about coming face to face with a mountain lion in the forest until the day they learn to walk on their hind legs alone. Unless you’re a three-year-old, of course.
At three feet at the shoulders, cougars can still be intimidating. For the average adult human, you can expect them to come, give or take to about your knee. While you are more likely to find smaller mountain lions, especially in areas with low deer populations or during the colder months, you can still find some that easily outnumber you. After all, at 220 pounds, mountain lions can weigh as much as a washing machine.
If you lay down next to a mountain lion, even some of the tallest humans wouldn’t come close to being 8 feet tall. However, only their tail can be 3 feet which means you might be as tall as or even taller than their body size.
When it comes to holding hands, a human and a mountain lion are almost equal, with the mountain lion having a leg that is only an inch or so larger than a human hand.
domestic cat vs. Mountain Lion Size

While you may already have an idea of how a mountain lion compares to a house cat (think of our trench coat analogy), Maine Coons are one of the larger house cats and don’t do the “average” justice.
The average house cat is between 9 and 10 inches tall – much shorter than the Maine Coon and a lot of shorter than a mountain lion. In fact, it would take nearly 4, if not more, domestic cats to be the size of a mountain lion. While the average house cat can be 18 inches tall, or about a foot and a half, it still doesn’t compare to the 8-foot giant that is the cougar. If you placed them side by side, a typical cat would look like a mountain lion cub (or their dinner!).
Weight wise, even the largest house cats are typically under 20 pounds, with the average being somewhere between 7 and 9 pounds. This means that even with the smallest adult mountain lion, you’ll need close to 10 house cats to balance the scales. Talk about meow-ny cats.
Although domestic cats have the same paw shape as their wild relatives, their feet are usually only about 1 inch in diameter. That’s a quarter the size of a cougar.
bobcat vs. Mountain Lion Size

If you’re not familiar with the wild cats of America, it can be easy to confuse these two ferocious cats. This is especially true if you can’t see the bobcat’s tell-tale tail. However, one thing that sets the bobcat and the mountain lion apart is their size difference.
As bobcats have made their way onto mainstream media platforms, many people have referred to them as the “friend-shaped” wildcat. And this nickname is not far from the truth.
Bobcats are fat, fluffy and weigh only a maximum of 40 pounds. They are also only about 2 feet tall at the shoulders and 3 feet tall, making them about the same size as a Maine Coon cat. However, despite their small size, bobcats are one of the best land predators in the Western Hemisphere, feeding on a diet of small mammals including rodents and juvenile big game.
And, like the average house cat, bobcats are only a fraction of the mountain lion’s size.
dog vs mountain lion size

While we’ve spent some time comparing mount
ai
n lions to other felines, do you know how they’ll compare to dogs?
Some breeds, such as the chihuahua or Dachsund, looks like chew toys next to a mountain. After all, usually less than 10 inches tall, these small dog breeds are barely bigger than a mountain lion’s paw. And when it comes to weight, it takes as many as 10 small dogs at their maximum healthy weight to be the same as the smallest adult mountain lions.
However, some dogs have been bred to: Mountain Lions in mind. Breeds such as the Anatolian Shepherd have a history in livestock communities where herders needed an extra hand (or paw) to care for their flocks, especially when it came to predators like the mountain lion. The Anatolian Shepherd are over 2 and a half feet tall at the shoulders and weigh up to 140 pounds, making them a good match for the mountain lion.