Post by: wolfbait on July 03, 2014, 07:51:57 AM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2014 4:30 AM
By Mike Koshmrl
Jackson Hole’s mountain lions spend a disproportionate amount of time in parts of their territory that are far from wolves, new research by the Teton Cougar Project shows.
The Kelly research group’s paper “Home range characteristics of a subordinate predator: selection for refugia or hunt opportunity?” was published in the Journal of Zoology in late May.
Among other findings the research shows that lions tend to distance themselves from wolves, a competing species that sometimes kills cougars.
“If you look at what’s called the core home range, it tends to be farther from wolves than the rest of their home range,” said Patrick Lendrum, a Cougar Project biologist and the lead author of the study.
Individual mountain lions frequent the core areas within their home ranges the most, Lendrum said.
Because wolves select top-tier territories with the most available prey, subordinate mountain lions are being pushed away from the most productive parts of the landscape, Cougar Project team leader Mark Elbroch said.
“There is a reduction in habitat in the sense that they are prioritizing habitat differently,” Elbroch said.
Female cats, he said, particularly select for home ranges that are thick with prey and that are distanced from wolves. That’s also the case with males, which occupied home ranges 1.9 to 3.3 times larger than the females, according to the study.
“All cougar home ranges were farther from the centroid of known wolf pack territories than expected when compared with the study area,” the paper said.
“Spatial displacement between wolves and cougars has been noted in several other studies,” it said. “This, no doubt, limits the availability of quality habitat in the Southern Yellowstone Ecosystem, which has implications for juvenile cougar survival, juvenile dispersal success and overall cougar population dynamics.”
The Journal of Zoology study, which used 11 years of GPS and very-high-frequency data from 28 collared animals, also came to several other conclusions.
Lion home ranges did not definitely increase or decrease in size based on the availability of prey or the percentage of the habitat that was forested.
There was “mixed support” for the hypothesis that mountain lions would select home ranges that were more rugged, steep and treed — all sources of refuge — than expected compared with the study landscape as a whole.
Both female and male cats also tended to occupy home ranges nearer to roads than researchers had expected, the paper said.
The recently completed home range study relied mostly on larger, landscape-level data, Elbroch said.
The Cougar Project plans to piggyback on the Journal of Zoology paper with a new study that will use precision real-time data from GPS-collared wolves and lions to look at “fine-scale interactions” between the two predators.”
“With this new opportunity, in three years we may actually disprove everything we think we’re learning now,” Elbroch said. “It’ll be great.”
http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/study-finds-cougars-avoid-wolf-territory/article_22f996aa-4924-53b1-b5aa-06f254ad28df.html (http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/study-finds-cougars-avoid-wolf-territory/article_22f996aa-4924-53b1-b5aa-06f254ad28df.html)
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Post by: mulehunter on July 03, 2014, 08:34:52 AM
Post by: Gringo31 on July 03, 2014, 10:35:32 AM
Post by: KFhunter on July 03, 2014, 06:24:22 PM
I was talking to a guy yesterday who was at the Cattlemen's meeting and from what I gathered, there was a WDFW person there and wolf discussion was going on. He said something about them documenting at least two wolves killed from cougar. :dunno:
I wonder if the wolves were part of a pack or disperser?
this thread makes me think of the twisp infestation thread
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,147898.0.html (http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,147898.0.html)
Post by: washelkhunter on July 03, 2014, 06:45:15 PM
Post by: wolfbait on July 03, 2014, 09:56:03 PM
I was talking to a guy yesterday who was at the Cattlemen's meeting and from what I gathered, there was a WDFW person there and wolf discussion was going on. He said something about them documenting at least two wolves killed from cougar. :dunno:
I wonder if the wolves were part of a pack or disperser?
this thread makes me think of the twisp infestation thread
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,147898.0.html (http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,147898.0.html)
One of the many things that the USFWS have "discovered" since their wolf introduction is, the Canadian packs will come together and hunt as one big pack, they saw this in Mt. How does a pack of 40 wolves sound? Or even 23? Think of the destruction they would leave behind with their surplus killing.
There have been a few reports of old Tom's hanging low, usually it is the two or three year olds that we have the most trouble with in the summer.
Post by: mountainman on July 07, 2014, 10:02:30 AM
I was talking to a guy yesterday who was at the Cattlemen's meeting and from what I gathered, there was a WDFW person there and wolf discussion was going on. He said something about them documenting at least two wolves killed from cougar. :dunno:they can document wolves killed by a younger, but not cows killed by wolves??
Maybe sick or wounded wolves..healthy wolves? Not buying it..
Post by: bearpaw on July 07, 2014, 10:19:38 AM
Post by: jasnt on July 09, 2014, 06:24:05 AM
Post by: wolfbait on July 09, 2014, 09:44:00 PM
I was talking to a guy yesterday who was at the Cattlemen's meeting and from what I gathered, there was a WDFW person there and wolf discussion was going on. He said something about them documenting at least two wolves killed from cougar. :dunno:they can document wolves killed by a younger, but not cows killed by wolves??
Maybe sick or wounded wolves..healthy wolves? Not buying it..
Funny how that works, maybe WDFW get their recruits from the VA?
Post by: wolfbait on July 09, 2014, 09:47:34 PM
More than just cougars are getting pushed out. I've been finding elk in my deer area. They used to stop by this area in late winter but it seems they are hanging out all summer this year. This area is my 2nd home and I have never seen elk or elk sign past march. Last year the cougar population seemed to double(or at least I seen more cat sign than ever before) tho I won't mind if the elk call it home now but im worried the wolf will be the next residents.
Folks are seeing more moose than in years past in the Methow, quite sure WDFW have a reason other than wolves. Probably climate change.
Post by: snowpack on July 09, 2014, 09:56:42 PM
What's interesting is a paleontologist can look at remains from an animal they place at a million years old and can tell you with a really high degree of certainty what kind of animal killed it. "oh, that was killed by a short faced bear" even though dire wolves and saber toothed cats were around. But in modern times people get stumped by what killed a cow an hour before.I was talking to a guy yesterday who was at the Cattlemen's meeting and from what I gathered, there was a WDFW person there and wolf discussion was going on. He said something about them documenting at least two wolves killed from cougar. :dunno:they can document wolves killed by a younger, but not cows killed by wolves??
Maybe sick or wounded wolves..healthy wolves? Not buying it..
Post by: Maverick on July 09, 2014, 10:31:40 PM
Post by: Fl0und3rz on July 09, 2014, 10:40:46 PM
Post by: Maverick on July 11, 2014, 08:23:28 AM
In other news: Study finds bears do crap in woods.
:chuckle: