Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

COUGAR EXPLOITATION LEVELS AND LANDSCAPE CONFIGURATION:
IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE AND METAPOPULATION
DYNAMICS
DAVID C. STONER, Utah State University, Dept. of Forest, Range, and Wildlife Sciences,
5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-5230, USA, email: dstoner@cc.usu.edu
MICHAEL L. WOLFE, Utah State University, Dept. of Forest, Range, and Wildlife Sciences,
5230 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-5230, USA, email: mlwolfe@cnr.usu.edu
Abstract: Currently eleven states and two Canadian provinces utilize sport hunting as the
primary mechanism for managing cougar (Puma concolor) populations. However the impacts of
sustained harvest on demographic structure and population persistence are not well understood.
Additionally, the range of non-biological factors influencing the rate of population recovery has
not been thoroughly examined. We have been monitoring the cougar populations on Monroe
Mountain in south-central Utah, and in the Oquirrh Mountains of north-central Utah since 1996
and 1997, respectively. The critical management distinction between these sites is the degree of
exploitation. The Monroe population is subjected to heavy annual hunting pressure and is
characterized demographically by a younger age distribution, low survivorship, low fecundity,
and declining density. In contrast, the population inhabiting the northeastern slope of the
Oquirrhs is subjected to little or no hunting pressure and exhibits an older age distribution,
relatively high survivorship and fecundity, a stable density, and a high emigration rate. Due in
part to these differences, the Oquirrh and Monroe populations appear to exhibit source and sink
dynamics within the regional metapopulation. Therefore the temporal scale of population
recovery may depend on the interaction between the dominant harvest regime and the degree of
landscape connectivity with neighboring patches. Aside from harvest, the interaction between
patch configuration and anthropogenic fragmentation may be highly influential in the long-term
prognosis for these populations. We discuss the implications of these demographic distinctions
in light of enumeration uncertainties, habitat fragmentation, and landscape structure.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
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