Since we alledgedly don't have Mt Lion's in Michigan I was wondering what there primary source of food is? I have a cat that is medium probably 90-100 lbs and I am placing a kill on a brach next to him. It cant be too large or it will over power the mount and I don't want something so small it looks like a snack. I had initially thought a small fawn but since the scene will display winter I figured nota good idea. Any input is always appreciated. Take care...Mark
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Here in the Southwest they eat about anything, but their primary source of food is deer. However, they will "pig-out" on our peccaries from time to time. That may be an option for you. Meanwhile, not meaning to sound critical, but personally I've not heard of any cougars hauling their kill up into a tree, they tend to eat on the ground.
cougars predominantly eat deer out east....and out west for that matter...and yes, there are cougars in Michigan and Ontario, as well a few other of your neighbouring states...but again, they eat deer, deer and more deer....apart from that the only other prey item along the border areas is pets (cats and small dogs) along urban interfaces...you could try a snowshoe hare but it is not their main food source, especially during winter months, they eat deer....cats will shave their deer with their teeth prior to eating them also and when they have eaten enough, they bury them for the next day...maybe try a ground mount with a small white-tail buck's head...make it look like the remainder of the body is buried under snow. This would offer a natural, medium sized mount that has no blood and gore...good luck.
I hunt lions with hounds and have done so for a lot of years. Lions don't carry their kill to a tree like a leopard. Leopards use this technique to avoid larger predators like lions and hyenas. However, lions don't have to worry about that. In fact, the only time they climb a tree is when pressed by hounds. In areas where a lion has been run quite a bit with dogs, they have even learned to avoid trees, and will prefer rocky ledges and boulder piles in which to confuse and avoid the dogs.
In your situation, you have a real small cat, a sub-adult. As such, it's probably not real proficient at killing deer or elk yet. Young lions eat more rabbits and birds than you would think, at least until they get proficient at killing deer. It takes a bit of weight on a cat to pull a deer off its feet, and until the lion achieves that weight, it is relegated to eating smaller prey. So it may make some sense to use a rabbit, as was suggested, or maybe a grouse. However, your client may not like you drawing attention to the fact that his or her trophy is a sub-adult. But if you are going to use the tree limb in your mount, the only reason a lion would be up there is to avoid dogs. I'd suggest you re-think and maybe use a rocky ledge with a bit of browse to make it interesting. Then a rabbit or a grouse would be much more natural.
One final thought, lions use prominent trees to leave their sign and mark their territory. In fresh snow I've seen lots of times where a lion will rub the side of its face on low hanging branches, apparently as part of the marking ritual. When hounds trail into some of these places, they aren't able to smell the scent on the ground, and will start smelling (and sometimes licking) these low hung branches, and will usually find some residual gland scent there. I've thought about mounting a lion in the act of rubbing its face on a limb like that, maybe with a magpie on the end of the limb squwaking at the lion (with the implication that a kill is nearby).
Just my 2 cents.