Puma Tracking Project Reveals Effects Of Human Development

A three-year puma tracking project — which followed the big cats also known as mountain lions, panthers, or cougars — published its findings last week in the online open access journal PLOS One.

The University of California-Santa Cruz Puma Project, headed up by Chris Wilmers, revealed how they tracked 20 pumas over 6,600 square miles in their quest to find out how human development affects the cougars.

Between 2008 and 2011, they captured 37 pumas and ultimately selected 12 females and eight males for the tracking projects. These animals were fitted both with an ear tag and a GPS transmitter that sent out location information every four hours.

The GPS data allowed them to find kill sites, including prey remains in 115 places.

It turns out that a cougar’s activity can change a lot depending upon whether or not it’s breeding.

Based on the pumas his team tracked, Wilmers acknowledged that mountain lions can be bold and courageous animals “totally willing to brave rural neighborhoods.” However, when they’re ready to raise youngsters, they become much more secretive.

The team also noticed that females were less likely to be frightened off by human housing than males, which might bring them into more conflict with humans. They’re not sure why, but it’s speculated that the females with cubs can’t move as freely to find food, so they’re more highly motivated to seek out easy pickings near human homes.

The puma tracking project has also helped them identify where they tend to cross highways — important information since some mountain lions have been killed crossing busy roads. One male crossed a winding highway 31 times. He was badly injured when he was struck by a car in 2010.

A female thought to be his mate was actually killed on the highway in 2011.

An even more important source of conflict arises when ranchers and farmers move in with tasty prey animals. Eight of the 11 pumas that died in the course of the research were killed by humans because they were seen attacking livestock.

You can follow the adventures of the Puma Project trackers on their Santa Cruz Pumas website.

[mountain lion/puma warning sign courtesy Maurice Abdul “Abbie” Pantarhei via Wikipedia Commons]

[wild mountain lion or puma photo courtesy Larry Moats of the US Fish and Wildlife Service]