Good morning! * Animal Facts * Mountain lions were once widespread across the United States. However, due to various factors such as bounty hunts in the early 1900s, persecution, trophy hunting, poaching, retaliation against livestock predation, orphaning of kittens, poisoning, and habitat loss and fragmentation, they are now only found in 15 western states. The Florida panther, a genetically isolated subspecies, remains in the eastern part of the country.