Proceedings of the fifth mountain lion workshop: 27

PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP 61
losses below average (14.28%). Keeping vulnerable
livestock penned at night may help avoid losses. Mountain
lions usually attack livestock at night, and are wary to come
close to human habitation. Sunquist and Sunquist (1989)
commented that axis deer (Axis axis) gather around houses
at night in order to minimize attacks from predators.
Hornocker (1987:183) recommends dealing with
livestock losses to mountain lions "on individual case basis
than a continuing blanket effort aimed against all... Various
herding strategies and use of guard dogs with livestock have
shown some promising results in preventing heavy losses".
In our study we attempted to record information on the
influence of dogs in preventing attacks. Because dogs
usually stay at the main house and livestock are usually
elsewhere in the visited farms, we have only sparse
information on the influence of dogs in preventing attacks.
The keeper of Dona Olindina has three dogs, and says the
eldest can keep mountain lions away from the sheep. The
sheep are kept beside the main house and losses are zero.
The farm Potreiro Velho also keep the sheep beside the
main house, and show small losses. At this farm the
mountain lion attacked at night and killed a pig and a sheep
while the two dogs kept barking.
SUMMARY
Cattle losses to mountain lions are not frequent.
All farms that had losses to attacks had grazing cattle in
vulnerable areas, yet not all farms that kept them vulnerable
suffered losses to attacks. What causes mountain lions to
attack cattle in only few farms are still unknown. However,
we were able to compare sheep losses on farms that kept
them in a pen overnight near the main house and those that
didn't. Farms that adopted this simple management
technique had less than 3% of sheep loss to mountain lions.
Other farms, with 2 exceptions, had above 14% losses,
averaging 34.51% losses to mountain lions. We should
keep in mind that this is not a profile of all farms from the
study area, but a profile of those farms that suffer attacks
from mountain lions. Goat losses were high, and occurred
at all studied farms that had goat herds. Goats were raised
extensively on studied farms. Swine losses have no
patterns. Some of the losses to other causes may be due to
mountain lion attacks. Swines grazed extensively and
amount to the smallest investment on farms compared to
other livestock.
Mountain lions usually attack livestock at night,
and with rainy or drizzle weather. Winter and Spring are
the seasons with most mountain lion attacks.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We like to thank the people of the Department of
Ecossistems at IBAMA-Santa Catarina, specially biologists
Américo Ribeiro Tunes and Marlise Becker, for redirecting
the calls of mountain lion incidents, and for their continuous
support. IBAMA partially funded the trips to check
incidents
LITERATURE CITED
Currier, M.J. 1983. Felis concolor Mammalian Species
200:1-7.
GAPLAN, 1986. Atlas de Santa Catarina. Gabinete de
Planejamento e Coordenação Geral. 173pp.
Hoogesteijn, R., A. Hoogesteijn, and E. Mondolfi. 1992.
El dilema depredacion vs conservacion del jaguar
y analisis de la mortalidade de bovinos causada
por felinos en tres hatos del llano venezolano.
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Hornocker, M.G. 1970. An analysis of mountain lion
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Hornocker, M.G. and H. Quigley. 1987. Mountain lion:
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