Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - Why does the image of puma appear in the pottery of Mohji culture?

Why does the image of puma appear in the pottery of Mohji culture?

Pumas are one of the most widely distributed mammals in the American continent, from the Canadian yukon river Valley in North America to Argentina and Chile in South America. Distribution countries include Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, the United States and Venezuela.

Pumas are lonely, usually in groups of mothers and children. They share the same territory and mark the boundary with urine. The male's territory is larger than the female's, and there are many females in a male's territory. The territories of male and female pumas often overlap. During the breeding season, female pumas have eight days of estrus, during which many males will fight. They will be inseparable in two weeks and can mate up to 70 times a day.

The breeding season of pumas is not fixed, and the pregnant period of females is about 90 days. Usually, in late spring and early summer, females give birth to cubs in caves or hidden places, each nest 1-6 cubs, one per hour. After the cubs are born, the females will lick them clean and then raise their offspring alone. The newborn baby's eyes are closed, his body is light yellow, obviously dotted with light black spots, and there is a black ring on his tail. It takes about two weeks for the cubs to open their eyes. During this period, the cubs only sleep for a long time except getting up to eat milk. As they grow up, the spots on their bodies will gradually fade. In the first two years, cubs depend entirely on females to survive and get the food, warmth and safety they need from their mothers. Although born with a little predation ability, females must teach their cubs to live a lonely and isolated life in addition to catching all kinds of prey. At the age of 1 year, the cub's eyes become very bright and become a very naughty animal, with a body length of about 1.2 meters and a weight of nearly 20 kilograms. The growing cubs began to constantly look out of the cave at the novel world outside the cave, and barely took the first step outside the cave. However, in order to prevent the potential danger of predators such as coyotes, females always guard them from any threats including male cougars, because it is very common for male cougars to attack and kill their cubs, and sometimes even for their own offspring. ? [3]?

In order to survive, cubs must learn many things gradually. The main responsibility for raising them is borne by females. Among the young, according to their strength, intelligence and alertness, they are divided into obvious grades, and the strongest and smartest individuals are always ahead. Females use their wagging tails to teach their cubs to make use of their own specialties and improve their ability to respond to things. In order to discipline and train their cubs, when they express their anger, most of them will pat them gently, but they will never hurt them. Although the activities of young lions in the first few months can be regarded as play, this kind of play has a certain purpose, especially hunting games, and they will make a living by the skills they have learned from this kind of play in the future. When the cubs are three months old, the females will bring them out. She patiently gathered the cubs and took them to the place where the prey was stored. However, most of the time, when a female goes hunting, she only takes one cub out and leaves the rest in the nest.

Because it is difficult for a female to bring all her cubs close to the prey, the noise made by the cubs is extremely unfavorable to the female who is looking for prey. More importantly, she can be better trained to hunt with only one cub at a time. The young are sexually mature at the age of 2-3. Life span is 15-20 years.