Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring Carnivore

Lambert, Catherine Marie Sarah; Logan, Kenneth A.; Sweanor, Linda L.

doi:10.2307/4004045

Cited by 19 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Compared with other puma populations, survival rates in this system were higher than those seen in hunted populations (e.g., Robinson et al, 2014;Wolfe et al, 2015), but lower than those in remote areas free from hunting (e.g., Logan & Sweanor, 2001). Relative to other non-hunted, urban-adjacent puma populations in California, survival rates in the SCM are higher than what is seen in the Santa Ana and Eastern Peninsular Ranges (Vickers et al, 2015) but are slightly lower than survival rates in the Santa Monica Mountains (Benson et al, 2020).…”

Section: Ordermentioning

confidence: 60%

“…We considered two models: a model with housing density and sex and a model with their interaction to investigate whether housing density influenced mortality risk differently between males and females. We considered a sex-specific relationship because previous studies have shown that survival rates and drivers of mortality risk differ between male and female pumas (Logan & Sweanor, 2001;Ruth et al, 2011). We fit these models with housing density calculated from the 50% and 95% home ranges.…”

Section: Survival Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Habitat fragmentation reduces survival and drives source–sink dynamics for a large carnivore

Nisi

Benson

King

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

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Rigorous understanding of how environmental conditions impact population dynamics is essential for species conservation, especially in mixed-use landscapes where source-sink dynamics may be at play. Conservation of large carnivore populations in fragmented, human-dominated landscapes is critical for their long-term persistence. However, living in human-dominated landscapes comes with myriad costs, including direct anthropogenic mortality and sublethal energetic costs. How these costs impact individual fitness and population dynamics are not fully understood, partly due to the difficulty in collecting long-term demographic data for these species. Here, we analyzed an 11-year dataset on puma (Puma concolor) space use, mortality, and reproduction in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA, to quantify how living in a fragmented landscape impacts individual survival and population dynamics.Long-term exposure to housing density drove mortality risk for female pumas, resulting in an 18-percentage-point reduction in annual survival for females in exurban versus remote areas. While the overall population growth rate appeared stable, reduced female survival in more developed areas resulted in source-sink dynamics across the study area, with 42.1% of the Santa Cruz Mountains exhibiting estimated population growth rates <1. Since habitat selection is often used as a proxy for habitat quality, we also assessed whether puma habitat selection predicted source and sink areas. Patterns of daytime puma habitat selection predicted source areas, while time-of-day-independent habitat selection performed less well as a proxy. These results illuminate the individual-and population-level consequences of habitat fragmentation for large carnivores, illustrating that habitat fragmentation can produce sourcesink dynamics that may not be apparent from other metrics of habitat quality. Locally, conserving high-quality source habitat within the Santa Cruz Mountains is necessary to support long-term puma population persistence. More broadly, source-sink dynamics may at play for other carnivore populations in similar fragmented systems, and linking landscape conditions

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Section: Ordermentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Survival Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat fragmentation reduces survival and drives source–sink dynamics for a large carnivore

Nisi

Benson

King

et al. 2023

Ecological Applications

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“…Brands of collars used were Followit, Northstar, Telonics, and Lotek, and the average mass per collar was 900 g. All collars were programmed to record puma location at either 2-or 3-h intervals, depending on the brand of collar and battery life, every day of the week between 19:00 and 7:00, when pumas are most active (Beier 1995, Logan and Sweanor 2001, Anderson and Lindzey 2003.…”

Section: Collaring Pumasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pumas are solitary and sexually dimorphic (male body mass: 78 kg; female body mass: 48 kg), with an average body mass comparable to the African leopard (Panthera pardus) and snow leopard (Uncia uncia) (Logan and Sweanor 2001, Elbroch and Wittmer 2013, Ripple et al 2014. Pumas are ambush predators that specialize on the most abundant large ungulates of a similar body mass to their own (e.g., mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus), but they also display opportunism when hunting and prey upon a range of species of different sizes (Hornocker 1970, Logan and Sweanor 2001, Moss et al 2016, LaBarge et al 2022.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have been published on puma diet in both North America (Clark et al 2014, Elbroch and Quigley 2019, Prude and Cain 2021 and South America (Ávila-Nájera et al 2018, Llanos et al 2020, Cepeda-Duque et al 2021, but there has been limited recent research published on puma diet in southwest New Mexico (but see Prude and Cain [2021] for recent research on pumas in south-central New Mexico and Logan and Sweanor [2001] for a more dated but in-depth study of puma ecology in south-central New Mexico). Few recent studies have focused on the effect of both sex and season on puma diet in this area (but see Elbroch and Wittmer 2013, Clark et al 2014, and Elbroch and Quigley 2019 for similar research in other states).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Puma (Puma concolor) Sex Influences Diet in Southwest New Mexico

Bernard,

Perry,

Mgqatsa

2023

Western North American Naturalist

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Predation of cougar kittens following the aggregation of American black bears

Bianco,

Ruprecht,

Clark

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

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The prevalence, intensity, or outcome of interference competition and interspecific killing between predominantly solitary species operating on large spatial scales is challenging to document or test. Here, we present a detailed account of inter‐ and intraspecific interactions from contemporaneous GPS location data and in‐field investigation. In June 2018, a GPS‐collared female cougar (Puma concolor) maintained strong site fidelity for a period of 19 days, indicative of parturition behavior and establishment of a nursery site. In early July 2018, three GPS‐collared black bears (Ursus americanus) arrived at the nursery site, after which the female cougar abandoned the site. Site investigation showed that one or more bears predated an unknown number of cougar kittens. The evidence supports ecological theory suggesting that body size, mass, or group number is an important predictor of outcome. Our observation provides an example of bears potentially making risk–reward trade‐offs by eliminating a potential competitor that at the same time provisions carrion as critical food resources. These real‐time inter‐ and intraspecies competitive interactions as documented using GPS collars allow for greater insight into individual fitness and community‐level effects.

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Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring Carnivore

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Habitat fragmentation reduces survival and drives source–sink dynamics for a large carnivore

Habitat fragmentation reduces survival and drives source–sink dynamics for a large carnivore

Puma (Puma concolor) Sex Influences Diet in Southwest New Mexico

Predation of cougar kittens following the aggregation of American black bears

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