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 have shown high mortality amongst cougars that travel farthest from the maternal range , often due to conflicts with other cougars ( intraspecific competition ) . Research in New Mexico have shown that " males dispersed significantly farther than females , was more likely to traverse large expanses of non @-@ cougar habitat , and was probably most responsible for nuclear gene flow between habitat patches . "