Proceedings of the fifth mountain lion workshop: 27

46 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
Marcelo Mazzolli. Projecto Puma, Parque Ecológico do Córrego Grande, R. Jo~o Pinho Duarte Silva, 535, 88037-000
Florianópolis - SC - Brasil
C.B. Ryan. Projecto Puma, Parque Ecológico do Córrego Grande, R. Jo~o Pinho Duarte Silva, 535, 88037-000 Florianópolis -
SC - Brasil
Key words: Brazil, Mountain Lion, Puma concolor, Subspecies
Abstract The identity of mountain lion subspecies in Brazil is yet to be studied. The most controversial subspecies is Puma
concolor concolor which inhabits semi-arid regions as well as Atlantic forests and savannas. The range of P.c. concolor has
changed three times since the first description. The range now extends form northeast Brazil south through Uruguay to
northeastern Argentina and Paraguay. Up till now the subspecies description of P.c. concolor has been based on three skulls:
one male from the northeastern Brazil; and a male and female form southeastern Brazil. The purpose of this paper is to identify
variations within the range of P. concolor and provide information for further studies on the taxonomy of Brazilian mountain
lions. Such information may be valuable to define management plans for the species at the subspecific level. Twenty-nine skulls
(15 male and 14 female) from two regions within the range of P.c. concolor) were compared. Differences are reported on
measurements of both males and females.
Brazil is well known for its extensively forested
amazon and the ecologically rich swamp regions of the
Pantanal. Protected by extensive forest cover, mountain lions
and other species that require large home ranges can still
sustain healthy populations in those areas. Puma c. concolor
occupies a more fragmented environment as a result of
intensive land development by man, which includes northeast,
southeast and south Brazil, northeast Argentina, eastern
Paraguay and Uruguay. In the 2 southernmost states of Brazil,
mountain lions find refuge mainly on mountains above 800 m
(Ihering 1949, Mazzolli 1993). Uncontrolled poaching,
absence of effective biological reserves and a lack of
population counts and monitoring raise questions about the
subspecies' current status.
Because the P.c. concolor range is so extensive and
diversified, and so few descriptions are available, one may
argue the presence of only one geographical race. In order to
augment the available information on P.c. concolor, several
specimens are described by means of cranial measurements.
Populations from the south and southeast Brazilian range of
P.c. concolor are statistically compared. These data are
compared with data from the type locality (northeast Brazil),
and specimens from northeast Argentina and Uruguay.
The evolutionary importance of subspecies and the
validity of applying subspecific names based on subtle
differences between populations are discussed (e.g., Cracraft
1989). We consider that biodiversity must be preserved at all
taxonomic levels, and we agree with Chambers and Bayless
(1983) that subspecies often are the best available description
of variability within a species.
METHODS
Skull measurements (Fig. 1) of 15 adult male and 14
adult female mountain lions from south and southeastern
Brazil (Fig. 2) were collected using a 300mm sliding caliper.
The measurements were those used by Ximenez (1973), with
greatest length added by the author. T-tests were performed
using Systat 5.0 statistical package for Macintosh. Males and
females were analyzed separately because of their strong
sexual dimorphism (Mazzolli 1992). The t-test assumes the
equality of variances and normal distribution of the samples
(Zar 1974). The equality of variances for each group were
compared using the formula F=s1/s2 (Zar 1974), and
normality was verified by measuring skewness.
RESULTS
The measurements of all collected data are in Table
1. Results of the t-test that account for discriminating the
groups are shown in Table 2, Table 3 and Fig. 3. The skull
measurements with the most discriminating power for males
are postorbital length (P=0.00), interorbital and zygomatic
breadth (P=0.02), length of mandible (P=0.05), cranium width
(P=0.07), total length (P=0.08), and for female discrimination
are breadth of rostrum (P=0.01), basal length (P=0.02), total
length, condilobasal length and length of mandible (P=0.05),
and length of palate (P=0.08).
Southern (S) mountain lions have larger skull
dimensions (males wider and females longer) than mountain
lions from the Southeast (SE) group. Results with
probabilities slightly lower than 95% were included because
of the small sample size may change the probabilities.