 Young adults leave their mother to attempt to establish their own territory at around two years of age and sometimes earlier ; males tend to leave sooner . One study has shown high mortality amongst cougars that travel farthest from the maternal range , often due to conflicts with other cougars ( <unk> competition ) . Research in New Mexico has shown that " males dispersed significantly farther than females , were more likely to traverse large <unk> of non @-@ cougar habitat , and were probably most responsible for nuclear gene flow between habitat patches . " 
