Visitor Counter

hitwebcounter web counter
Visitors Since Blog Created in March 2010

Click Below to:

Add Blog to Favorites

Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

Subscribe via email to get updates

Enter your email address:

Receive New Posting Alerts

(A Maximum of One Alert Per Day)

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

John Laundre's LANDSCAPE OF FEAR comes to mind as new research from U. Of California Researchers have determined that female Pumas who have their territories close to human habitation tend to kil 36% more deer and Elk than those who do not........Seems that the "Cats" concern of being hunted and persecuted by us causes them to abandon kills faster and leave them only partially consumed..............The article below seems to convey that this is a bad thing as more prey animals get killed than otherwise would............I pose this question: Is it really so bad that this occurs based on the fact that deer densities are ungodly high in close to human settlement?.............On the other hand, if indeed the female Pumas are "stressed" because of poor eating habits and therefore having compromised litters of kittens, then indeed the "landscape of fear" as it relates to us humans putting all types of stress(hunting, trapping/habitat alteration, etc) on these big cats is a bad thing

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/12235/20150126/fear-humans-drive-pumas-towards-wasteful-hunting.htm&ct=ga&cd=CAEYASoTMzg3MDUyMTMxMjUzNDAzODMwOTIaNTI1NjVmODUzZjRjOTZmOTpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNHl6KcB8xpul6bxzNWM-n0XkJP0GA

Fear of Humans May Drive Pumas Towards 'Wasteful' Hunting

Jan 26, 2015 12:24 PM EST
puma
We all know that human activity can influence the lives of nearby animals, especially those top predators that now have to play second fiddle to our ever-expanding interests. However, a new study has shown that not only do our actions impact them, but also our mere presence may cause majestic killers like pumas to grow so fearful that they change their hunting habits for the worse. (Photo : Flickr: Tambako The Jaguar)
We all know that human activity can influence the lives of nearby animals,
 especially those top predators that now have to play second fiddle to our ever-expanding interests. However, a new study has shown that not only do our actions impact them, but also our mere presence may cause majestic killers like pumas to grow so fearful that they change their hunting habits for the worse.
What they found was startling. In areas near a higher density of human housing, female pumas in particular were found to kill about 36 percent more large prey - mainly deer - than the more "rural" pumas.That's at least according to a new and fascinating study recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which details how, among pumas living in California, those living closest to humans were found to kill a lot more prey, but eat less of each kill, compared to pumas in more wild and secluded areas.
This was determined after a team of scientists from the University of California captured and tagged 30 wild pumas with GPS collars so they could track their movements. The territory and hunting grounds of these animals were then identified, breaking the pumas up into those that are living either near more rural or suburban human environments. The team also investigated kills, measuring just how much of each kill was eaten before a puma elected to slip away.
Strangely, it wasn't that the suburban pumas were hungrier. Instead, it appears that they are eating less of each kill - revisiting kill sites less frequently and spending less time taking their meals, compared to your average puma.
So what's driving these pumas to act so differently? Fear of humans, the researchers suggest, is likely the primary cause. Female pumas are generally more cautious when hunting and eating compared to their male counterparts, largely because they are expected to birth and raise cubs.
That, of course, leads them to making an effort to avoid humans, even if that means smaller meals.
Unfortunately, "the loss of food from decline in prey consumption time paired with increases in energetic costs associated with killing more prey may have consequence for puma populations, particularly with regard to reproductive success," the researchers report, saying that this extra caution may all be for naught.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting, but I have to wonder if the kills are being abandoned BECAUSE of these guys finding and messing with them! Otherwise, why would they abandon them because of the proximity of humans? So long as humans weren't bothering the kill sites? From a cougar's point of view, I'd think the commotion one made during a kill would make them more nervous about detection by humans, than slipping in quietly to feed on a well hidden kill site--just sayin'. It may simply be BECAUSE there are so many deer around, and they are so easy to kill--I've read some studies where certain individual cougars just seem to PREFER to kill more frequently because they prefer to eat fresher meat! Which would be quite likely for a CAT, as opposed to a canine or bear that often like their meat a little "ripe"! And it could just be instinctive stimulus--just can't resist an easy opportunity, of which there are obviously going to be plenty of with lots of deer in a small area of habitat. Just some thoughts.....This "excess" killing has been documented with both coyotes, wolves, and grizzlies, in areas where poisoning campaigns were perpetrated, and animals that survived bouts of poisoning learned to only eat what they had just freshly killed themselves, making livestock depredations far worse than they would have otherwise been! "Excess" is a foolishly human-biased term anyway, as wolves, coyotes, and bears will all continue to feed off multiple rotting carcasses if LEFT ALONE to do so, and they also provide food for a plethora of other species(as, of course, I'm sure YOU know!).....L.B.