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

maximum of 147 days, although the male that moved for 147 days was still dispersing
when its collar signal was lost. Collar locations indicated that sibling males SM170 and
SM130 associated during dispersal for 42 ±7 days.
All 5 pumas that dispersed were collared in undeveloped-zone natal ranges, and all but
one female dispersed into the developed zone. The only puma that remained philopatric
with its mother was female SF901, the only puma collared in a developed zone natal
range. The 3 dispersing males all initially moved southwest, toward lower elevations and
developed areas, although 2 eventually changed direction. The female that remained in
the undeveloped zone dispersed south-southeast. Female SF889, from which only pre-
and post-dispersal locations are known, moved west overall from the undeveloped zone
to the developed zone.
Collar-location data indicated that all dispersing animals crossed the home ranges of
other collared pumas, and dispersal paths traversed all major sectors of the study area. All
dispersing males crossed major highways, rivers and rural residential areas, and traveled
from 86.3 to 194.0 km, measured as the sum of linear distances traveled every two weeks
during dispersal. Males dispersed Euclidean distances 23.2 km to 141.1 km (μ = 67.6 km)
away from their natal ranges. Female subadult SF881 traveled 31.5 km summed distance,
and dispersed 27.2 km Euclidean distance from its natal range, while female SF889
dispersed 16.2 km Euclidean distance from its natal range.
Male SM170 moved more than 80 km into the Auburn city limits, then across more than
one hundred kilometers of rugged, mountainous terrain before collar signal cessation.
Male SM119 briefly occupied a commercial area of the city of Placerville, before moving
north to establish a long, narrow home range straddling multi-lane highway I-80, and
being killed by another puma. Additionally, independent subadult male SM852b had
already occupied a long, narrow home range stretched along highway I-50, at the time of
collaring. SM852b was killed by a vehicle on the highway. Overall, 57.1% of the
subadult animals (4 of 7) were known to have died during our study, all in the developed
zone. Two of these were in thin, poor condition at time of death.
Obstacles to movement
Table 4 displays the expected and observed percentages of puma paths generated from
GPS-collar location points that crossed highways, rivers, and dense residential
developments. Highways occurred in the home range areas of all 6 developed-zone
pumas and 4 of 6 undeveloped-zone pumas, for which collar downloads were obtained.
Three developed-zone puma home range areas and all undeveloped-zone home range
areas contained major rivers. Dense residential developments occurred in the home range
areas of 5 developed zone pumas and 1 undeveloped-zone puma.
Pumas crossed potential obstacle features far less often than predicted from paths
generated using that animal’s movement data. Paired t-tests indicated that pumas crossed
highways (t = 50.661, df = 9, p < 0.001), rivers (t = 11.873, df = 7, p < 0.001), and
residential developments (t = 7.612 df = 5, p < 0.001) significantly less than expected.
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