THE PUMA - CAT OF ONE COLOUR (Puma concolor)

[Shir Babr]

Article by Mark Elbroch about the relation of pumas with other predators and humans  throughout its range. Excerpts:

"In a new paper just published in PeerJ, we found that mountain lions are often losers—and subordinate to at least one other apex carnivore in 47.5% of their 22,735,268 square kilometer range across North and South America."

"Anna Kusler, a graduate researcher with Panthera’s Teton Cougar Project from Pace University, and I set out to investigate the mountain lion’s position in animal hierarchies by reviewing past research assessing interactions between mountain lions and other large carnivores. We knew they were at the top—but they are not alone, as they share this rank with grizzly bears, wolves, jaguars and several others."

*This image is copyright of its original author

"Mountain lions are heavily regulated through hunting to reduce conflicts with livestock and people, which raises an important question: Should we reduce human hunting where dominant competitors like wolves and bears make mountain lion lives more difficult, or, at minimum, reduce hunting where dominant competitors are expanding their range into areas where mountain lions were the top carnivore?"

"Wolves seem to influence mountain lions the strongest. When they live with wolves, mountain lions reduce their use of open habitats, where wolves have the advantage, and restrict their movements to forests and cliffy areas where they can easily escape wolves that might pursue them. They also change which prey they hunt when they live with wolves."

*This image is copyright of its original author

Article: https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/01/25/caught-in-the-middle-the-subordinate-mountain-lion/#

I must say this is impressive. What can attest more to how remarkable pumas are and its amazing prowess than the fact that even having to put up with the pressure of bigger and /or more numerous competitors without the weaponry and adaptations of the similarly sized leopard, that being a more successful species than them? Reply