Cargando…

Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape

Wide-ranging large carnivores pose myriad challenges for conservation, especially in highly fragmented landscapes. Over a 13-year period, we combined monitoring of radio collared pumas (Puma concolor) with complementary multi-generational genetic analyses to inform puma conservation in southern Cali...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vickers, T. Winston, Sanchez, Jessica N., Johnson, Christine K., Morrison, Scott A., Botta, Randy, Smith, Trish, Cohen, Brian S., Huber, Patrick R., Ernest, Holly B., Boyce, Walter M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4503643/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26177290
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131490
_version_ 1782381334413443072
author Vickers, T. Winston
Sanchez, Jessica N.
Johnson, Christine K.
Morrison, Scott A.
Botta, Randy
Smith, Trish
Cohen, Brian S.
Huber, Patrick R.
Ernest, Holly B.
Boyce, Walter M.
author_facet Vickers, T. Winston
Sanchez, Jessica N.
Johnson, Christine K.
Morrison, Scott A.
Botta, Randy
Smith, Trish
Cohen, Brian S.
Huber, Patrick R.
Ernest, Holly B.
Boyce, Walter M.
author_sort Vickers, T. Winston
collection PubMed
description Wide-ranging large carnivores pose myriad challenges for conservation, especially in highly fragmented landscapes. Over a 13-year period, we combined monitoring of radio collared pumas (Puma concolor) with complementary multi-generational genetic analyses to inform puma conservation in southern California, USA. Our goals were to generate survivorship estimates, determine causes of mortality, identify barriers to movement, and determine the genetic and demographic challenges to puma persistence among >20,000,000 people and extensive urban, suburban, and exurban development. Despite protection from hunting, annual survival for radio collared pumas was surprisingly low (55.8%), and humans caused the majority of puma deaths. The most common sources of mortality were vehicle collisions (28% of deaths), and mortalities resulting from depredation permits issued after pumas killed domestic animals (17% of deaths). Other human-caused mortalities included illegal shootings, public safety removals, and human-caused wildfire. An interstate highway (I-15) bisecting this study area, and associated development, have created a nearly impermeable barrier to puma movements, resulting in severe genetic restriction and demographic isolation of the small puma population (n ~ 17–27 adults) in the Santa Ana Mountains west of I-15. Highways that bisect habitat or divide remaining “conserved” habitat, and associated ongoing development, threaten to further subdivide this already fragmented puma population and increase threats to survival. This study highlights the importance of combining demographic and genetic analyses, and illustrates that in the absence of effective measures to reduce mortality and enhance safe movement across highways, translocation of pumas, such as was done with the endangered Florida panther (P. c. coryi), may ultimately be necessary to prevent further genetic decline and ensure persistence of the Santa Ana Mountains population.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4503643
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-45036432015-07-17 Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape Vickers, T. Winston Sanchez, Jessica N. Johnson, Christine K. Morrison, Scott A. Botta, Randy Smith, Trish Cohen, Brian S. Huber, Patrick R. Ernest, Holly B. Boyce, Walter M. PLoS One Research Article Wide-ranging large carnivores pose myriad challenges for conservation, especially in highly fragmented landscapes. Over a 13-year period, we combined monitoring of radio collared pumas (Puma concolor) with complementary multi-generational genetic analyses to inform puma conservation in southern California, USA. Our goals were to generate survivorship estimates, determine causes of mortality, identify barriers to movement, and determine the genetic and demographic challenges to puma persistence among >20,000,000 people and extensive urban, suburban, and exurban development. Despite protection from hunting, annual survival for radio collared pumas was surprisingly low (55.8%), and humans caused the majority of puma deaths. The most common sources of mortality were vehicle collisions (28% of deaths), and mortalities resulting from depredation permits issued after pumas killed domestic animals (17% of deaths). Other human-caused mortalities included illegal shootings, public safety removals, and human-caused wildfire. An interstate highway (I-15) bisecting this study area, and associated development, have created a nearly impermeable barrier to puma movements, resulting in severe genetic restriction and demographic isolation of the small puma population (n ~ 17–27 adults) in the Santa Ana Mountains west of I-15. Highways that bisect habitat or divide remaining “conserved” habitat, and associated ongoing development, threaten to further subdivide this already fragmented puma population and increase threats to survival. This study highlights the importance of combining demographic and genetic analyses, and illustrates that in the absence of effective measures to reduce mortality and enhance safe movement across highways, translocation of pumas, such as was done with the endangered Florida panther (P. c. coryi), may ultimately be necessary to prevent further genetic decline and ensure persistence of the Santa Ana Mountains population. Public Library of Science 2015-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4503643/ /pubmed/26177290 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131490 Text en © 2015 Vickers et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Vickers, T. Winston
Sanchez, Jessica N.
Johnson, Christine K.
Morrison, Scott A.
Botta, Randy
Smith, Trish
Cohen, Brian S.
Huber, Patrick R.
Ernest, Holly B.
Boyce, Walter M.
Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape
title Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape
title_full Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape
title_fullStr Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape
title_full_unstemmed Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape
title_short Survival and Mortality of Pumas (Puma concolor) in a Fragmented, Urbanizing Landscape
title_sort survival and mortality of pumas (puma concolor) in a fragmented, urbanizing landscape
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4503643/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26177290
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131490
work_keys_str_mv AT vickerstwinston survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT sanchezjessican survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT johnsonchristinek survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT morrisonscotta survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT bottarandy survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT smithtrish survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT cohenbrians survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT huberpatrickr survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT ernesthollyb survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape
AT boycewalterm survivalandmortalityofpumaspumaconcolorinafragmentedurbanizinglandscape