Cougar Dispersal Patterns, Metapopulation Dynamics, and Conservation

Abstract

We examined cougar ( Puma concolor) dispersal, emigration, and immigration in the San Andres Mountains, New Mexico, from 1985 to 1995 to quantify the effects of dispersal on the local population and surrounding subpopulations. We captured, tagged, and radio‐collared animals to detect the arrival of new immigrants and dispersal characteristics of progeny. We found that cougars in southern New Mexico exhibited a metapopulation structure in which cougar subpopulations were separated by expanses of noncougar habitat and linked by dispersers. Of 43 progeny (n = 20 males, 23 females) studied after independence, only 13 females exhibited philopatric behavior. Males dispersed significantly farther than females, were more likely to traverse large expanses of noncougar habitat, and were probably most responsible for nuclear gene flow between habitat patches. We estimated that an average of 8.5 progeny (i.e., cougars born in the study area) successfully emigrated from and 4.3 cougars successfully immigrated to the San Andres Mountains each year. Concurrently, an average of 4.1 progeny were recruited into the San Andres cougar population. Protected cougar subpopulations can contribute to metapopulation persistence by supplying immigrants to surrounding subpopulations that are affected by fragmentation or offtake by humans. Cougar population dynamics and dispersal behavior dictate that cougar management and conservation should be considered on a regional scale.

Dynamics of a black bear population within a desert metapopulation

“…Indeed, Beckmann and Lackey (2004) concluded that desert matrix was not an effective barrier to bear movement in the Great Basin of Nevada. We found for black bears in our study region, as observed for cougars in other Chihuahuan desert habitats (Sweanor et al, 2000), that we could not identify distinct corridors for dispersal between insular mountain ranges.…”

“…Dispersal by male mountain lions in the anthropogenically-constrained regions of southern California (x = 63 km; Beier, 1995) and southern Florida (x = 68 km; Maehr et al, 2002) is approximately 50% of that reported for the species in the naturally fragmented Chihuahuan desert (x = 116 km; Sweanor et al, 2000). Similarly, Boyd and Pletscher (1999) stated variability in wolf (Canis lupus) dispersal may be a function of human density and landscape patchiness, among other factors.…”

“…However, with the paradigm shift in ecology toward metapopulation biology, these montane islands (also known as sky islands, a term attributed to Weldon Heald by Warshall [1994]) provide useful opportunities to study dynamics in large carnivores that have the mobility to move through the intervening matrix. For example, the montane islands of the Chihuahuan desert have provided a case study of metapopulation dynamics on mountain lions (Puma concolor) in southern New Mexico (Sweanor et al, 2000).…”

First Confirmation of Cougar, <em>Puma concolor</em>, in the Yukon

“…Six unconfirmed Yukon sighting records include kittens (Yukon Department of Environment, unpublished data), suggesting a breeding population. Alternatively, Cougars seen in the Yukon may represent a few individuals (e.g., young males) that make long distance dispersals and are not indicative of a viable local breeding population (Pierce et al 1999;Sweanor et al 2000). In Wyoming, one radio-collared male Cougar is known to have dispersed >1000 km (Thompson and Jenks 2005).…”

Caracterización genética del puma andino boliviano (Puma concolor) en el Parque Nacional Sajama (PNS) y relaciones con otras poblaciones de pumas del noroccidente de Sudamérica

“…En uno de ellos se asoció el 82 % de los individuos de la costa norte de California y en el otro el 87 % de los individuos del suroeste de California. Esto es, en ciertas áreas de la distribución de su rango, las poblaciones de pumas parecen seguir una estructura metapoblacional (Beier 1996, Sweanor et al 2000, pero en otras zonas los animales muestran desplazamientos extremadamente largos (Pierce et al 1999) Obviamente, las estimas de flujo génico entre la muestra boliviana y las de otros países del entorno fueron ostensiblemente superiores (para F ST , Nm = 6-22; para R ST, Nm = 3-5; para alelos privados, Nm = 1,29) a las reportadas para las poblaciones de Texas (para F ST , Nm = 2,07; para R ST, Nm = 0,625; para alelos privados, Nm = 0,545). Estas estimas están basadas en la asunción de un modelo WrightFisher con equilibrio deriva-flujo génico (no para el procedimiento de los alelos privados) que probablemente no se da para las poblaciones de pumas estudiadas, lo que podría ofrecer estimas de flujo génico no concordantes con la realidad.…”