Above are two graphs of front (lower graph) and hind (upper graph) constructed from over 100 heel pad width measurements taken from the book "Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring Carnivore", by Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor, Island Press, 2001. The red arrow indicates where the heel pad width of this cat falls. The y axis is in centimeters. The black horizontal line in the dark blue box indicates the median the whisker bars and the blue box indicate the quartiles. As you can see, based on the measurement, whether a front or hind foot, this cougar was likely a male.