Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

154 DISPERSAL IN MALE PUMAS · Laundré and Hernández
mating with sisters or mothers that have
shifted their home range areas. This
minimal distance should be represented by
the average dispersal distance of females
(sisters) from their natal home range.
RESULTS
Prediction #1: Male conflicts
Relative to levels of adult male/kitten
conflict or infanticide, we found ample
evidence for infanticide in our study and in
the literature. We recorded 4 cases of adult
male pumas killing kittens (9 kittens total) in
our study area. Robinette et al. (1961) cited
reports from Utah of young pumas being
killed by adult males on 2 occasions.
Hornocker (1970) reported 1 instance of an
adult male killing 2 kittens in his study area
in central Idaho. Lindzey et al. (1989)
reported 4 kittens being killed by pumas in
southern Utah. However, they were not sure
of the sex of the responsible animals.
Spreadbury et al. (1996) documented 2 male
kittens being killed by a transient male in
British Columbia. Logan and Sweanor
(2001) reported 12 kittens being killed by
adult males in their study in New Mexico.
With respect to adult male/subadult male
conflicts, Lindzey et al. (1989) reported a
transient male being cannibalized by a
resident male. Murphy (1998) reported 2
incidences of territorial males killing
yearling males in his study in Yellowstone
National Park. Logan and Sweanor (2001)
reported 4 mortalities of younger (14.3-21
months) males being killed by older males,
including 1 instance of a father killing his
son.
Although Hornocker (1970) and
Seidensticker et al. (1973) did not report
conflicts among adult male pumas, various
other investigators reported it as rather
common. In our area, adult males we
captured often had facial scars and torn ears,
presumably from conflicts with other adult
males or, perhaps, females. Sitton and
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
Weaver (1977) reported 2 adult pumas being
killed by other adult pumas as a result of
fighting. However, the sex of the
combatants was unknown. McBride (1976)
reported 2 incidences of adult males with
extensive facial injuries and 1 instance of an
adult male being killed by another. Murphy
(1998) reported an adult immigrant male
being killed by the resident male. Logan
and Sweanor (2001) found 5 adult males
killed by other males. They also reported
that 4 of the 5 winners outweighed the
losers, 2 of the 5 losers were killed by older
animals, and 2 of the other 3 were 8 and 12
years old, well past their prime.
Prediction # 2: occurrence of inbreeding
Concerning the presence of inbreeding
within puma populations, it is well known
that the Florida panther is highly inbred,
including first order matings (Roelke et al.
1993, Barone et al. 1994 and others). This
indicates that there is no innate “aversion” to
inbreeding. Logan and Sweanor (2001)
reported an average residency of males of 6
years (maximum = 8 yrs) in their study in
New Mexico. If we assume an average of 2
years per litter (Logan and Sweanor 2001),
males were resident on average for at least 3
generations. Given that females are
primarily philopatric (Logan and Sweanor
2001), and there is no aversion to inbreeding
with their fathers, we predict that with this
length of residency a father would have the
opportunity to mate twice with his daughters
and once with granddaughters. If there is an
innate aversion to inbreeding, such matings
should not occur. Logan and Sweanor
(2001) report that 2 females mated with their
fathers, 1 of them mated with her father
twice, supporting the prediction based on no
aversion to inbreeding.
Prediction # 3: Dispersal distances
For dispersal distances of males, we
limited our analysis to animals that were
known to have set up territories or were