On my way back from New Year's, I almost hit one of these. It was munching on something on the side of the road, and it jumped in front of me.

Normally the mountain lion/puma/cougar depending on where you come from is one of my favorites, but there is now one out there that isn't on my list for getting any Christmas cards next year...LOL

I couldn't find any word for them in my dictionaries so I was wondering if anyone here had a word for them?

We use the word cougar, and yes we mean the cat...

But I was wondering how to translate this?

My first guess would be to say something like:

leon sléibhe (mountain lion)
leon an tsléibhe (lion of the mountain)

or...

cat sléibhe (mountain cat)
cat an tsléibhe (cat of the mountain)

http://www.focal.ie/Enquiry.aspx

Focail.ie do not have a word for it. My advice to you is to get in there first and suggest whichever form you wish - as the gael on the scene.

They will probably accept it and you will have literally added a word to the language.

Do they have them in Alba Nua by the way?

Couldn't tell you about Alba Nua, I live on the Iowa/Nebraska border which is in the center of the United States. We still have a few of them round here, although most of them have been pushed west now. They are trying to re-introduce them to the area, but it is not working like they want it to.

We lost a cow to one about 10 years ago. It took the county three weeks to hunt it down. There is something in the Loess Hills that messes with their location tags.

We have them all around us here in Central Texas. They are very very elusive. One of my farm workers saw a black puma about 400 yards from my house about 3 months ago. We lose a couple of cows a year, but I think they mainly feed on our tremendous wild hog population.

It's enough to incentivize me to stay: Ag foghlaim an Gaeilge sa teach!

Slán
Faber

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_lion

Puma concolor and Puma concolor couguar

Gaeilge: cúgar nó púma

De Bhaldraithe gives cúgar specifically for mountain lion. That's what I call them. I worked in a library in a foothill area. One of these beauties decided to come out and walk around the parking lot. I can't blame it -- we've built on top of it's old home. But we were scared s***less for about an hour. They don't really like to cuddle up and play!