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

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Potential Habitat and Dispersal Corridors for Cougars in the Midwest Clayton K. Nielsen, Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-6504, USA, kezo92@siu.edu Michelle A. LaRue, Cooperative Wildlife Research Laboratory, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-6504, USA, michelle_larue@hotmail.com ABSTRACT Increasing cougar (Puma concolor) presence in the Midwest represents a growing management concern for wildlife biologists. However, with the exception of ongoing research in the Black Hills, no studies have been conducted regarding potential cougar habitat and dispersal corridors in the Midwest. Our objectives were to model potential habitat and dispersal corridors for cougars using an expert-opinion survey, geospatial data, and a GIS. Five geospatial data layers were used in the model: land cover, digital elevation models, roads, streams, and human density. Based on matrices of pair-wise comparisons involving these data layers, 11 expert biologists were surveyed to rank combinations of habitat factors in order of importance to potential cougar habitat in the Midwest. We evaluated surveys using the Analytical Hierarchy Process and used a GIS to analyze data and create a map of potential cougar habitat in a 9-state portion of the Midwest just east of established cougar range. About 8% of the study region contained highly favorable habitat (≥75% favorability) for cougars; Arkansas (19%) and Missouri (16%) had the most potentially favorable habitat. We identified 6 large, contiguous areas of highly favorable habitat for cougars (≥2,500 km 2 in size with ≥75% habitat favorability). Based on this habitat model, we used least-cost pathway methods to create potential dispersal corridors for cougars from established western populations into the interior Midwest. The most-likely least-cost pathways started in western Texas and went to areas of suitable habitat in the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests. Additionally, we created least-cost pathways to 30 locations of known cougar occurrence in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Missouri. Our models represent the first large-scale assessment of cougar habitat and dispersal potential in the Midwest and serve as a baseline for conservation and management efforts. Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop 122
Refining the Use of GPS Telemetry Cluster Techniques to Estimate Cougar (Puma concolor) Kill Rate and Prey Composition Kyle H. Knopff, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada kknopff@ualberta.ca Aliah Adams Knopff, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada, aliah_ak@hotmail.com Mark S. Boyce, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada ABSTRACT Recent advances in global positioning system (GPS) radio-telemetry technology have created promising new opportunities for increasing sample size and reducing field efforts when estimating parameters of predation for large carnivores. Clusters of relocations in close proximity obtained from GPS radiocollars deployed on cougar (Puma concolor) can be used to identify potential kill sites. The number of prey found by visiting all clusters in a monitoring period can be used to estimate kill rate directly, or models can be employed to indirectly estimate kill rate by identifying kill clusters from GPS data. Extending kill rate models to allow indirect estimation of prey composition in a multi-prey setting has been suggested, but not attempted. We used data from 1,735 visits to GPS telemetry clusters and 637 prey >10kg found at clusters in westcentral Alberta to further explore and refine indirect and direct GPS telemetry cluster techniques for cougar. We developed logistic regression models to identify kill sites (prey >10kg) from GPS data and multinomial regression models to identify the prey species at a kill cluster. The predictive capacity of each model was assessed using k-fold cross validation. The top logistic regression model had good classification success (86%), and 5-fold cross-validation at this cutoff revealed that it was capable of estimating cougar kill rate to within an average of +8.67% (SD = 5.56) of true values. The top multinomial model also had reasonable classification success (75%), but it over-predicted the occurrence of primary prey (deer) in the diet and under-predicted the consumption of alternate prey (e.g., elk and moose) by as much as 100%. Simulated visits to all clusters in our dataset with a model-estimated kill probability of 0.15 or higher revealed that we could reduce the number of clusters visited by as much as 50%, while still retaining 91.6% of all kill clusters. Although indirect GPS telemetry cluster techniques can be usefully applied for overall kill rate estimation, they poorly estimate diet composition. Therefore, we recommend using model-directed field visitation to estimate kill rate and prey composition for cougar in multi-prey systems. Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop 123
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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
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Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW
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Figure 1. Wildlife Management Units
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Figure 2. Cougar habitat in Utah. A
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Table 1. Utah cougar harvests, 1989
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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 and 124: Demographic and Landscape Influence
Page 125 and 126: Challenges and Opportunities Facing
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: Daily Movement Distances of Florida
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
Page 175 and 176: Estimation of the Bottleneck Size i
Page 177 and 178: A Preliminary Retrospective on the
Page 179 and 180: Population Estimation and Dynamics
Page 181 and 182: Dynamics and Demography of a Centra
Page 183 and 184: 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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