Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop - Carnivore ...

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Cougar Spatial and Habitat Use in Relation to Human Development in Central Washington. Benjamin T. Maletzke, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University, PO Box 646410, Pullman, WA 99164, USA, maletbtm@dfw.wa.gov Gary M. Koehler, Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501, USA, koehlgmk@dfw.wa.gov Robert B. Wielgus, Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University, PO Box 646410, Pullman, WA, 99164, USA, wielgus@wsu.edu ABSTRACT In recent decades, residential development has been increasing and human-wildlife interactions are becoming more common. We captured and collared 42 cougars (Puma concolor) from 6 weeks old to adult age and monitored their movement patterns and their spatial organization from 2001-2008 in the foothills of the North Cascades near Cle Elum, WA. We fitted cougars >2 years of age with Lotek 4400 and Televilt GPS collars programmed to collect 4-6 location fixes per day all year. We have accumulated over 27,500 locations fixes from 21 cougars. Relative to other areas in Washington, Cle Elum has a lightly hunted cougar population. We found the resident adult cougars were on average >6 years of age. Male cougars we have monitored have scars from fighting, most likely from defending territories from other sub-adult or resident cougars. Home range boundaries appear stable. When a cougar is killed, the next cougar to occupy that area maintains similar home range boundaries and movement patterns. In Kittitas County, there are relatively few human/cougar incidents as Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife receives approximately 4-11 reports per year and only a small portion are verified as cougars. Preliminary analysis of several individual cougars collared for >4 years display a shift in cougar movements and a withdrawal from areas of large-scale development. Understanding how cougars utilize areas where human development is expanding in cougar habitat may offer tools for managers to potentially minimize human/cougar conflict. Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop 112
Challenges and Opportunities Facing Florida Panther Conservation – Can We Increase the Size of the Box? Darrell Land, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 566 Commercial Blvd., Naples, FL 34104-4709, USA, Darrell.Land@myfwc.com Chris Belden, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 1339 20th Street, Vero Beach, FL 32960, USA, Chris_Belden@fws.gov Since a breeding population of Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) was officially verified in 1978 south of Lake Okeechobee, all panther conservation efforts have been directed towards ensuring the survival of this small population. These efforts have included preservation of >230,000 acres of habitat, installation of wildlife crossings in highways, improved habitat management practices that benefited both panthers and their prey, and panther genetic restoration to mimic natural gene flow into this isolated and small population. The panther population has grown over the past 20 years from as few as 20-30 to 80-100 cats today. The reproducing portion of this population occurs south of the Caloosahatchee River, a dredged waterway that flows from Lake Okeechobee westward to the Gulf of Mexico, in a fairly contiguous 1.7 million acres that is still threatened by habitat loss and/or degradation. Female panthers and all known reproduction have been documented only south of this river; young males occasionally cross it and disperse northward into south-central Florida (Maehr et al. 2002a). Florida’s human population nearly doubled in size from 9.7 million people in 1980 to >18 million in 2006 and this growth has put increasing pressure on wildlife habitat and rural land uses such as cattle ranching and agriculture. Local and State conservation land buying programs continue to preserve habitat but these programs cannot keep pace with the rapid inflation of property values. Average price per acre has risen from $3,700 to $12,000. The remaining 500,000 acres in private ownership are not only threatened by development, but by loss of functionality, due to habitat fragmentation or severing of key linkages among habitat patches. According to population viability models, a population of 80-100 panthers is minimally viable over a 100 year projection; a reduction in size below 50 animals is in danger of extinction (Maehr et al. 2002b, Root 2004, and Kautz et al. 2006). The current breeding range is 70% publicly-owned and if we were to lose the remaining 30% (either direct loss or loss of functionality), the population would shrink in size. Purchasing panther habitat has worked well in the past, but funds are limited. Rising property prices and a weak economy are creating conditions where conservation land purchases are not able to secure large tracts and cannot compete with other land development pressures. A new conservation tool is the Rural Land Stewardship (RLS) program that provides incentives for private property owners to maintain wildlife habitat, wetlands, water recharge areas, and agriculture on their lands. Development is allowed on less environmentally-sensitive lands in exchange for preservation of lands with higher Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop 113
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Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain L
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IN REMEMBRANCE There are giants who
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Distinguished Service Awards Mauric
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North Dakota Dorothy Fescke .......
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Evaluation of noninvasive genetic s
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Survival and ages of cougars harves
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Preface Chronology of Mountain Lion
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9 th Mtn. Lion Workshop Agenda Coug
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10:35-10:55 Estimating lion populat
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Movements of a female cougar on the
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State and Province Mountain Lion St
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160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Lions
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somewhat stable, though overall abu
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Idaho Cougar Ages 2002 2003 2004 20
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and that occurred in 1999 to a 13-y
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the approximately 15 other bills in
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for Project CAT; his primary focus
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Oregon Mountain Lion Status Report
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cougar seasons are 10 months long (
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Population Status and Trend Status
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California Mountain Lion Status Rep
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Number (i) The permit does not inva
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The steps in responding to a public
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during the attack, objects chewed o
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Montana Mountain Lion Status Report
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Red Desert basin. Mixed conifer and
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Table 1. Wyoming mountain lion mana
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(Fig. 4). Approximately 90% of all
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- Use of rubber bullets - Use of pe
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Literature Cited Anderson, C.R., JR
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Genetic Monitoring A recent study b
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Literature Cited Anderson, C. R., F
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Mule deer and bighorn sheep hunting
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In 1981, the Harvest Objective hunt
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more than 10% of Nevada’s 286,298
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Future Research The Department is c
Page 73 and 74: Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW
Page 75 and 76: Figure 1. Wildlife Management Units
Page 77 and 78: Figure 2. Cougar habitat in Utah. A
Page 79 and 80: Table 1. Utah cougar harvests, 1989
Page 81 and 82: while encouraging some hunter selec
Page 83 and 84: State’s management objectives (ma
Page 85 and 86: Stoner, D. C., W. Reith, M.L. Wolfe
Page 87 and 88: Figure 1. Colorado mountain lion Da
Page 89 and 90: Percent Q. Achievement & Success 65
Page 91 and 92: in which we request voluntary reduc
Page 93 and 94: Figure 6 is preliminary information
Page 95 and 96: humans, predation on pets, hobby st
Page 97 and 98: Arizona Mountain Lion Status Report
Page 99 and 100: Hunt Regulations Since the 8 th Mou
Page 101 and 102: The AZGFD supports the Cooperative
Page 103 and 104: South Dakota Mountain Lion Status R
Page 105 and 106: National Park [TRNP], Three Affilia
Page 107 and 108: Mountain lion carcasses were weighe
Page 109 and 110: Figure 2. Verified mountain lion lo
Page 111 and 112: In 2007, eleven mountain lions (n =
Page 113 and 114: increases or expansion. The overall
Page 115 and 116: Florida Mountain Lion Status Report
Page 117 and 118: interactions. Six categories of int
Page 119 and 120: cases (a large breed dog, miniature
Page 121 and 122: Interactions with Humans at the Urb
Page 123: Demographic and Landscape Influence
Page 127 and 128: Caloosahatchee River will be depend
Page 129 and 130: Prospects for Mountain Lion Persist
Page 131 and 132: Habitat Use and Movements Proceedin
Page 133 and 134: Daily Movement Distances of Florida
Page 135 and 136: Refining the Use of GPS Telemetry C
Page 137 and 138: ural areas (hereafter, developed zo
Page 139 and 140: owned, of which over 50% were zoned
Page 141 and 142: Garmin ® (Garmin Ltd.) GPS units.
Page 143 and 144: the steplength and turnangle distri
Page 145 and 146: Table 1. Collar performance, time m
Page 147 and 148: depredation on goats newly introduc
Page 149 and 150: Paths derived from puma movement pa
Page 151 and 152: Table 6 and Fig. 3 display the perc
Page 153 and 154: even mortality from a heavily explo
Page 155 and 156: parcels) and non-preferred habitat
Page 157 and 158: CDFG 2000. California Department of
Page 159 and 160: Stralberg, D. and B. Williams. 2002
Page 161 and 162: Multi-Carnivore and Prey Interactio
Page 163 and 164: subadults, and kittens, the study p
Page 165 and 166: Cougar Home Range Shifts and Appare
Page 167 and 168: iomass, or directly when cougars ar
Page 169 and 170: Mountain Lion Movement Patterns in
Page 171 and 172: Genetics and Disease Proceedings of
Page 173 and 174: and CO2 rifles and biopsy darts (bo
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Estimation of the Bottleneck Size i
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A Preliminary Retrospective on the
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Population Estimation and Dynamics
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Dynamics and Demography of a Centra
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The Idaho Backcountry: Is it Still
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Study Areas and Methods We selected
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We calculated the proportion of res
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Warren Adult Female Sub Female Sub
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Harvest Rate Change Four long-term
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had increased to over 25% of the co
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editor. Proceedings of the Third Mo
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Censusing Pumas by Categorizing Phy
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Education and Social Issues Proceed
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The Land of the Living Dead Comes A
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Science and Education Working Toget
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Her dad was a cougar hunter, so Eve
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The Gray Whales’ Migration Journe
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11) How do we manage real-time GPS
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harvest is not allowed. This reflec
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Key Concepts: Mountain Lion Managem
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Dispersal Movements of Subadult Cou
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Cougar Management Protocols: a Surv
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Response percent Response percent 1
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Table 2. Cougar population status b
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Table 5. Responses to what informat
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Rating average 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.
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Throughout the US and Canada, appro
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Percent Percent 100 90 80 70 60 50
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Table 8. Agency responses to what c
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the incident rated highest (67%). O
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Brochures/pamphlets/factsheets News
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In terms of education and outreach
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Population Status A vital prerequis
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agencies towards a standardized lan
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Literature Cited Anderson, C. R., a
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6) How does your agency solicit non
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19a) Hunting information Number of
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Game Warden/Conservation Officer Pr
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Cougars are not relocated when invo
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Other (explain) 45) What approaches
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Poster Session Proceedings of the N
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Generating an Index of Relative Abu
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Movements of a Female Cougar on the
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Survival and Ages of Cougars Harves
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Intra-specific Variation in Cougar
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Cougars in British Columbia: Conser
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Cougar-Induced Vigilance in Ungulat
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List of Participants First Name Las
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First Name Last Name Affiliation Ci
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First Name Last Name Affiliation Ci
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