Encroachment by human activities is the primary cause of natural habitat destruction and fragmentation, which represent the largest threat to wildlife, in particular mammalian carnivores such as the puma. This alteration of the environment can cause contraction of the spatial distribution of animals, with local extinctions and a consequent decline of global populations. This process is currently happening in the Espinal (Argentina) ecoregion, where natural habitats have been strongly degraded by the expansion of agricultural-ranching activities. This expansion has also led to human-felid conflicts that arise when pumas prey on livestock and humans respond to this threat with retaliatory hunting. This project studied puma ecology in El Espinal to understand the effect of anthropogenic factors on puma populations and contribute to mitigation of human-felid conflict.
The primary field methods included camera and live traps of pumas. Parallel to these activities, the researchers recorded puma predation and mortality events. In addition, linear transects were conducted to detect puma sign such as tracks and scat. Scat samples, as well as tissue samples from dead pumas, were used for a study of gene flow and population connectivity. Finally, the project included workshops with local populations to characterize the puma-ranching issues and introduce to residents the idea of participating in a process to find solutions to this conflict.
Camera traps illustrated higher occupancy of pumas (68%) in more conserved areas (mountains, shrub pasture) compared to areas that were fragmented, developed and close to roadways (28% occupancy). In addition, in this region generally high in agricultural-ranching activity, pumas appeared to be strongly nocturnal in their behavior pattern (94% of observations between 18:00-06:00). The live trapping efforts were unsuccessful, but the researchers gained experience setting traps and snares. Forty-seven samples (32 tissue and 15 scat) were collected and will be analyzed for population genetics in late 2016.
The workshops helped to identify the locals’ perceptions of factors contributing to puma predation on livestock, such as the clearing and abandonment of fields. The ecological studies are valuable in a human-wildlife conflict setting especially if a parallel effort is made to cooperate with residents that suffer from this conflict. Important information has been gathered in this study, allowing for the application of new methods (GPS collars, mitigation strategies) that can further contribute to solutions to the problems faced by pumas in El Espinal. ($7,990)