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Ⓒ Tom Mangelsen

Mountain Lions matter

February 19, 2023/in Research, News

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently published a study that compounds previous evidence of the positive role large carnivores, such as cougars, have on the landscape. Known as a keystone species,  just like in architecture, lions’ presence or absence ‘holds up’ or ‘destabilizes’ the rest of a structure. In nature it is other species-both flora and fauna.

The more scientists ask questions about the ecological contributions of large carnivores and invest effort into answering those questions, the more juxtaposed the traditional view of mountain lions as nuisance, vermin, or objects of sport becomes.

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/218081933#image-2

  • CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A camera-trap study of two ecosystems – one with pumas and one without – adds to scientists’ understanding of the many ways apex predators influence the abundance, diversity and habits of other animals, including smaller carnivores.

    Reported in the journal Ecosphere, the study followed multiple members of the order Carnivora, looking at how the largest carnivore in each locale influenced the behavior and presence of other animals in the same vicinity.

    Study lead author Alex Avrin.

    Study lead author Alex Avrin.

    Photo courtesy Alex Avrin

    “Nobody’s really looked at how the whole carnivore community changes when you lose that top predator,” said Alex Avrin, who led the research as an M.S. student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Max Allen, a research scientist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at the U. of I. Avrin is now a scientist with the California Fish and Wildlife Service.

    Previous studies have shown that pumas tend to suppress populations of medium-sized carnivores like coyotes, which do their best to avoid pumas, Avrin said. Reduced coyote populations allow other medium-sized carnivores to flourish. This has a cascading effect on many other species.

    Camera-trap photo of a coyote.

    When pumas disappear, other carnivores, like this coyote, function as the top predator. But their influence on other carnivore species is distinctly different than that of pumas, a study finds.

    Camera-trap photo courtesy Max Allen

    Pumas also leave behind a lot of carrion, allowing a host of scavengers – from microbes to birds and other animals – to feast on the remains that the pumas don’t consume, Avrin said. Coyotes tend to target smaller species and eat most of what they kill, leaving less behind for other creatures.

    The researchers wanted to compare the dynamics of ecosystems with and without pumas.

    Photo of a striped skunk.

    Striped skunks were more likely to use areas frequented by pumas, but not those used by coyotes.

    Photo by Michael Jeffords and Susan Post

    “We specifically wanted to look at whether, in the absence of pumas, coyotes step up and fill that role of the apex predator,” she said.

    Over several weekslong or monthslong sessions between 2011 and 2019, the researchers deployed grids of motion-activated cameras in various locales in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains of California and across the vast military installation of Fort Hood, Texas. The Santa Cruz site has a healthy population of pumas as well as bobcats, gray foxes, raccoons, striped skunks and coyotes. Fort Hood has those same carnivorous mammals except pumas. It also hosts the eastern spotted skunk and the ringtail, a member of the raccoon family. All of these species were included in the new analysis.

    “We used the photos to get an idea of which species were at each site, what areas they were using and how frequently we detected them,” Avrin said. “And we used a couple of different measures to look at how the smaller carnivores behaved around both the pumas and coyotes.”

    The two locales were similar enough to make these comparisons, “but of course climate, human land use and other variables differed between the sites,” she said.

    Camera-trap photo of a gray fox.

    The study also evaluated other carnivores, including gray foxes.

    Camera-trap photo courtesy Alex Avrin

    As expected, the analysis revealed that wherever pumas were present, coyotes were rarely seen. While other carnivores also appeared to avoid pumas, they were much more likely to be detected by the same camera traps as pumas – just at different times. Even bobcats and gray foxes used areas frequented by pumas more often than the researchers expected.

    In Fort Hood, where pumas were absent, coyotes had a different effect on the other carnivores.

    Camera-trap photo of a bobcat.

    Bobcats were more likely to be present at sites also used by pumas, but appeared to avoid coyotes, researchers found.

    Camera-trap photo courtesy Alex Avrin

    “If coyotes were filling that same apex role that pumas do, we would expect them to suppress bobcats – their next largest competitor – releasing the smaller carnivores,” Avrin said. “And what we found is that they really just suppressed everything – bobcats and the other carnivores.”

    The coyotes appeared to exert less of a suppressive effect on the other carnivores than the pumas had on coyotes, she said.

    “This is a correlational study, so we can’t say definitively that the absence of pumas caused these other effects,” she said. But the study strongly suggests that coyotes do not replace the apex predator in an ecosystem that lacks pumas.

    “So yes, when you lose an apex predator, pretty much your whole ecosystem is going to change,” Avrin said.

    Photo of a raccoon.

    Raccoons appear to be more wary of pumas than of coyotes.

    Photo by Michael Jeffords and Susan Post

    “In the absence of pumas, you’ll likely have more intensive grazing by deer, especially in areas near water, which can affect stream flows and other species,” she said. “Coyotes, because they can’t control those bigger prey populations the same way, don’t have the same effect. They likely end up suppressing smaller prey populations, which then changes things in a different way.”

    “This study gives us a fuller picture of the changes that occur when an apex predator goes missing,” Allen said. “While many people think that smaller carnivores can move into the apex role, we see that mesocarnivores like coyotes don’t provide the same effects as a true apex predator. This highlights how important it is to keep each species in place for an intact ecological community.”

    The National Science Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the Illinois Natural History Survey supported this research. The INHS is a division of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.

    Editor’s notes:

    To reach Alex Avrin, email alex.avrin@gmail.com.

    To reach Max Allen, email maxallen@illinois.edu.

    The paper “Can a mesocarnivore fill the functional role of an apex predator?” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau.

    DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.4383

     

    Michael Jeffords and Susan Post are wildlife photographers and research affiliates of the Illinois Natural History Survey at the Prairie Research Institute of the U. of I. Their photographs are available here.

https://cougarfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SpiritMountains.jpg 800 1200 Penny https://cougarfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/CougarFundBlack.png Penny2023-02-19 09:06:272023-02-19 09:06:27Mountain Lions matter

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An important new study adds to the body of evidence being amassed by researchers that supports the important ecological contributions of cougars as a keystone species. A direct quote in the article from Panthera's Puma Program Director Mark Elbroch as follows, "To those who care for the well-being of wildlife and the wild habitats sustaining all living beings, these findings yet again demonstrate the value and need to conserve the Americas' pumas." ... See MoreSee Less

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Study suggests pumas utilize sly strategy of fertilizing plants that recruit prey to hunting grounds

phys.org

A new Panthera study published today in Landscape Ecology has found that pumas might utilize a sly hunting strategy known as 'garden to hunt,' by which puma kills fertilize or deposit nutrients in soi...
22 hours ago
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Remember all the things you did before they went into the den?BEAR SPRAY, MAKE NOISE, RECREATE IN GROUPS, FOOD STORAGE PRECAUTIONS, and be aware that energy out is very expensive for a bear after not eating for a few months so if there is a trail or winter track, that is probably the route the bear will choose...
Lets protect them by minding our own behaviour!

Remember all the things you did before they went into the den?BEAR SPRAY, MAKE NOISE, RECREATE IN GROUPS, FOOD STORAGE PRECAUTIONS, and be aware that energy out is very expensive for a bear after not eating for a few months so if there is a trail or winter track, that is probably the route the bear will choose...
Let's protect them by minding our own behaviour!(News Release) On Tuesday, March 7, a Yellowstone National Park wildlife biologist on a radio telemetry flight observed the first grizzly bear of 2023 to emerge from hibernation. The adult bear, estimated at 300-350 pounds, was seen near the remains of a bison carcass in Pelican Valley, in the central-eastern part of the park.

The first bear sighting of 2022 also occurred on March 7.

Male grizzlies come out of hibernation in early March. Females with cubs emerge in April and early May. When bears emerge from hibernation, they look for food and often feed on elk and bison that died over the winter. Sometimes, bears will react aggressively to encounters with people when feeding on carcasses.

“Spring visitors skiing, snowshoeing, or hiking in Yellowstone National Park are reminded to carry bear spray and be especially alert for bears near carcasses and areas with early spring green-up. These are the first foods sought out by grizzlies after emerging from hibernations,” said Kerry Gunther, the park's bear management biologist.

All of Yellowstone National Park is bear country: from the deepest backcountry to the boardwalks around Old Faithful. The park restricts certain visitor activities in locations where there is a high density of bears, along with elk and bison carcasses. Restrictions will begin in some bear management areas on March 10.

Learn more about how to protect yourself and the bears that people come here to enjoy: go.nps.gov/23006
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3 weeks ago
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I'm in the Southern Sangre de Cristo mountains. It's been a mild winter, very little snow, so I'm betting the Black Bears will be popping out soon.

I would love to see a bear. (From a safe distance for both of us, of course).

Better yet, don't stop being responsible in the wilderness under a false sense of security provided by pop-media ideas that they're in comas underground. Bears experience wakefulness during their supposed hibernation, and especially during periods of warmer weather they will come out for snacks.

Please protect our bear’s from Stupid people!!!!

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UTAH WILDLIFE CONSERVATION EMERGENCY
A couple of days ago we a shared delightful national article about cutting edge studies of cougars in Utah. Today those cougars need your help. HB469 will remove management of mountain lions from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and allow them to be HUNTED and TRAPPED year round without limit or regulation. HB469 passed without notice or opportunity for public comment. Wildlife is held in trust for ALL the public, not a few special interest groups. Elected officials also represent more than a few stakeholders and need to seek advice from seasoned researchers and scientists before making decisions about wildlife. Please POLITELY ask Governor Cox at 801-538-1000 to not sign HB469, currently on his desk. or email cs.utah.gov/s/submit
The video below was shared by Denise and the crew of @Utah Mountain Lion Conservation who are working tirelessly to study and protect lions and ensure their place as a keystone species in Utah.
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4 weeks ago
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Congratulations to Denise Peterson, dedicated to mountain lions, and to sharing the results of her hard work.
Thank you Denise!
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Trail Camera Catches Something Conservationists Have Been Dying To See

www.msn.com

Denise M. Peterson had been waiting months for this. Ever since Peterson, founder of the Utah Mountain Lion Conservation, noticed a female and male mountain lion roaming the area together, she'd been ...
1 month ago
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Thanks! I can't wait to get back up to check these cams to see how they're doing!

I saw this on The Dodo this morning. A mom with two kittens!

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Photography & Video by Thomas D. Mangelsen and Wild Nature Media.
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It can’t be completed soon enough.Steve Winter PhotographyCan a mesocarnivore fill in the functional role of an apex predator?
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