A cougar is classified as a consumer.
Cougars, also known as mountain lions or pumas, are carnivorous mammals that primarily prey on other animals for their food. This makes them part of the consumer category in the food chain. Consumers are organisms that cannot produce their own food and rely on other living beings, either plants or animals, to obtain the necessary nutrients for survival.
In contrast, producers are organisms, typically plants, that create their own food through photosynthesis. Decomposers, on the other hand, break down dead organic matter and recycle nutrients back into the ecosystem. Since cougars hunt and eat other animals, they fall squarely into the consumer category.