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https://www.nontypical.org/news/2018/1/15/the-deadly-truth-most-dont-know-about-mountain-lions


UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA STUDY FINDS MOUNTAIN LIONS MAY BE EATING MORE THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED
Mountain lions, the largest members of the cat family in North America, may be heartier eaters than some researchers originally estimated.

“One of the most interesting things we found was how much more prey they kill in summer,” said Kyle Knopff, lead author of a three-year Canadian mountain lion study that was recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. “Just how focused they become on young of the year ungulates was surprising.”

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GPS aids study

Knopff is basing his conclusions on data collected from more than 1,500 kill sites while tracking 54 cougars with GPS collars. The collars allowed the University of Alberta researchers, including his wife Aliah, to move in quickly after a kill to identify what was taken and by which lion.

In the journal article Knopff writes that some previous studies “may have failed to identify higher kill rates for large carnivores in summer because methods in those studies did not permit researchers to locate many neonates or because sample size was too small.”

The use of GPS collars enabled Knopff and his colleagues to collect more data. As a result, he found that mountain lions killed more deer, elk and moose during the summer by focusing on juveniles and actually killed fewer animals in winter. The information contradicts previous studies conducted in Idaho.

“The Idaho estimates differed from our summer estimates by as much as 365 percent in terms of frequency of killing and 538 percent in terms of prey biomass,” Knopff wrote. “Because kill rate fundamentally influences the effect predators have on their prey, the discrepancy between studies represents a substantial difference in the capacity for cougars to impact ungulates.”


Built to kill

The study was conducted over 10 years in west-central Alberta, including the Bow Valley, Jasper National Park, portions of Banff National Park and in Clearwater County east of Banff. The terrain of the study area was a mixture of lodgepole pine and spruce forests at elevations ranging from 2,500 to 9,300 feet. The mountain lions' prey included deer, elk, bighorn sheep, coyotes, feral horses, beaver and porcupines.

Cougars aren't easy creatures to study. The secretive animals range widely to hunt - 250 to 600 square miles for males, 60 to 125 square miles for females.

Adult male cougars can weigh 140 to 165 pounds. One male cougar in Knopff's study tipped the scales at 180 pounds and primarily fed on moose and feral horses. Females typically weigh around 100 pounds. From nose to tail the big cats can measure 6.5 to 10 feet long. The average lifespan for a male is 8 to 10 years, 12 to 14 for females.

Great leapers and sprinters, cougars kill by latching onto their prey with their front claws and powerful forelegs and then biting the windpipe or spine along the neck with their large canine teeth. For smaller prey, lions may crush the animal's skull. On rare occasions lions have been known to attack humans.

“Our kill rate estimates indicate that adult cougars are highly effective predators, killing at rates at the upper end of those recorded for wolves in both frequency and biomass,” Knopff wrote.

In one prey encounter they studied, Knopff said a cougar brought down a feral horse less than 30 yards from where it attacked.

“I think our study showed they are very efficient predators,” he said.

Because of their adaptability, cougars are found from the Yukon to the Andes of South America, a larger range than any other big mammal in the Americas.

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Study findings

In studying cougar kill sites, the researchers publicized a couple of interesting details. One is that that female mountain lions with kittens kill more deer; the other is that adult male lions kill larger but fewer animals.

“We had one male cougar kill 18 moose in less than a year,” Knopff said.

Based on the Canadian data, the cougars killed on average .8 ungulates (mainly whitetail deer and moose) a week, an average of about 18 pounds a day. That statistic varied widely, though, based on the individual - from a low of .24 ungulates to a high of 1.38, or 18 to 41 pounds a day.

Those ungulates targeted tended to be young of the year or adults with yearlings, largely because they were easier to subdue.

Deer made up more than 75 percent of the diet for adult female lions in winter and summer. Adult males had a more varied diet, concentrating on moose (36 percent) in the summer and deer (44 percent) in the winter. All told, adult males targeted large ungulates for 62 percent of their diet. Subadult lions also ate more deer than other species, but like human teenagers they also varied their diet more opportunistically than adults.

On average, adult males killed an estimated 10,300 pounds of biomass annually compared to 9,400 pounds killed by females with young kittens.

Humans vs. cougars

Aliah Knopff said her portion of the study focused more on cougar-human interactions and the lion's habitat selection.

She said that as people have continued to build in more remote areas, cougars have had to adapt.

“These are actually quite adaptable carnivores,” she said, from changing their movements to become more nocturnal and avoid humans, to finding undisturbed islands within development to live in - such as along pipelines or well sites. The same can't be said for many other carnivores.

These more urban lions are mainly limited by human tolerance, she said. The people in rural Alberta who were interviewed for the study valued cougars highly, but not if they were killing pets or livestock.

“That's the challenge for cougar conservation when the backyard is becoming more overlapping,” she said.

Possible uses

Lion hunting is allowed in many Western states, including Montana and Wyoming. Hunters track and tree the big cats with hounds. Cougar kills are carefully regulated by state wildlife agencies.

Knopff writes that the Canadian study could be used by game managers to better calculate mountain lions' take of game animals and in turn reduce lion numbers to benefit deer, elk and moose populations. For example, hunting female cougars could reduce the number of deer taken in a specific area.

But such management can also produce unpredictable outcomes, he added. A lion population that is younger may lead to increased confrontations with humans.

Very interesting. Those kinds of studies have to be expensive, I'd like to see more similar studies to see how the stats hold up.

They are killing machines. They play hell with the mule deer & elk here in Colorado.

They are very expensive. A few years ago I participated in a study of cougars in the Cypress Hills area od Alberta. No one knew there were cats there until they were spotted by a local rancher. One thing led to another and there were plenty of reports throughout the Hills with many in the Provincial Park. (Similar to a State Park)
Even with plenty of us volunteering, it cost a small fortune over a 3 year period. End result was approx. 35-45 cats plus kittens in the Cypress Hills! Probably more by now. They are a fascinating creature to say the least.

There are regular sightings of them in Medicine Hat and Redcliff where I live and in many other places too. The vast majority of them in the South Sask River valley as they travel through the area.

We now have cougars all over Southern Alberta, so many in fact that the Province opened a Resident only season, no dogs, no baiting, Strictly a boot leather only hunt. Mostly this is due to the entire region being privately owned. It would impossible to run dogs without trespassing. Spot and stock/predator calling is the way to go. It is a blast, I am still looking to tag my first cat as it is quite the challenge. The occasional cat is taken each season so my time is coming.
Jeff

Very cool. I’ve always been enamoured by the secrattive nature and solo nature of mountain lions, and they’re killing prowess.... very cool animals....

I don’t have much experience with mountain lions. I went to Idaho in 1985 with a bunch of boys from Wisconsin and we managed to tree one with our bear hounds. We got lucky in that we found a fresh track the first morning in fresh snow. Spent the rest of the week looking for another track but couldn’t find one the dogs could run.
However limited my experience I came to the conclusion that a jumped cat wasn’t that hard to tree but finding a track the dogs could move could be a problem.
After years of the MNR claiming there were no cougars in Northwestern Ontario one was found dead last Spring—with pictures displayed in the local newspapers. It was determined after necropsy that it was a dispersing young male that starved to death. i don’t think we have enough deer locally to sustain a breeding population but we do get some moving thru. It seems every bushman up here has seen several over the years. I haven’t.
I would bet cats are like wolves—open up a season and several will get killed—then they smarten up and all you see will be tracks. I don’t think even hunting over bait will have much effect on the overall population—it doesn’t seem to on bears.

AB2506;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope all is well in your world today and thanks for the link to the study.

Speaking personally my cougar experience is mostly second hand in that I'm not a dog man, but know/knew a few locals who ran them for cats. We've got some pretty fair sized cougars here in the south Okanagan - which is interesting in that our mulies, whitetail and mountain sheep typically are on the small side of the respective sub-species.

Going back perhaps 20 years now, I recall a conversation with a guide who was chasing a particular big tom which killed 3 adult moose in under two weeks. That number may have been less if they'd not been after it or that was the guide's speculation at the time.

We had a really bad winter in '96 and the cougars killed a bunch of horses on ranches and First Nations reserves from Vernon south.

For all that, though we see bobcats every few years, I've only seen a single cougar in all my time here in the bush. Tracks and kills were more frequent, but they are mobile and elusive creatures for sure.

Thanks again for the link and all the best to you as we head into spring.

Dwayne

Dwayne, just talking to my lynx outfitter, he just killed a stud Tom a couple weeks ago, came in to hunt range horses. He also tells stories of lions killing moose. Pretty damn impressive really

Last year TWRA in Tennessee had to tell the public that there are indeed Mountain lions in Tennessee.

With the growing use of trail cameras, it makes it hard to deny. Sometime a picture is worth more than words.

They are very impressive and on my bucket list. For population control purposes only of course.

I've got a bit of a hate on for the bazderds spending 20 years in supposedly the world's densest cougar population will do that to some. Final straw our cat wasn't home one morning and the snow told the grizzly tale why, nailed by a cougar about 30 feet from the cat door. This is the north end of Vancouver Island.

The interesting thing there is there isn't much for large prey there. There's no moose there's a pretty sparse Roosevelt Elk population but that's it for large ungulates. Other than that there's Columbia blacktail deer, which aren't that big there. I got to know a few of the Conservation Officers (game wardens) over my time there, not surprisingly they spent a big percentage of their time dealing with human/cougar conflict. They were all convinced that the absolute favorite prey if they could get it was domestic cats, like crack to them. They'd move in to smaller communities of a few hundred people only, clean up all the outside cats and a few dogs over several months then move off if they didn't get shot first. In the wild their diet was mainly deer lots of grouse too. Basically anything that moved that wasn't big enough to defend itself was potential dinner.

Got to see quite a few of them but never during hunting season with a tag in my pocket it seemed. Low percentage without dogs. Probably saw a couple dozen in the time usually a fleeting brown streak. Very last trip moving from there dark and early just at day break I saw mom and three kits about the size of pit bulls cross the road right in front of me all calm as a cucumber as if to flip me one last bird. haha They got a place I hope they're always there but IMO they should all be killed if sniffing around where humans live. Period.

I lost 2 horses to a pair of sub-adults a few years ago. A neighbor lost a lama and a couple of sheep probably due to the same pair a week earlier.

I worked on a cougar study here in Colorado on the Uncompahgre Plateau in the 1980's. At the time it was the largest lion study ever undertaken.
The researcher did a literature survey of previous lion studies in North America and spoke to most of the researchers. He said every one of the researchers said the same thing:
-Your own agency was going to be surprised by how many cougars he caught,
-The public was going to be surprised by how many cougars he caught.
-Now that the public and sport hunters knew there were that many cougars, they were going to be all up in arms about it.
-Your agency will increase the cougar quota.

And that's exactly what happened.

.

After the study was over, a buddy, who had worked on the study longer than me, and I decided we weren't going to use hounds and instead call cougars. It was fun. He killed a 150lb tom, all I had ever show up were females with cubs or subadults. We would generally set up about 20 yds apart where we could watch each other's backs. One time after calling with no luck, we got up and checked things out, and there were brand new lion tracks in the snow about 25 yds behind me where my buddy couldn't see.......

Pretty amazing what a good houndsman can teach city college boys.

Seems a fitting thread and time to post this...

Urban Cougar

The houndsman on the study could trace the bloodlines of his dogs back to his grandfather's pack.

By virtue of experience, being out there for 8 months, 5-7 days a week, averaging 2 lions a week, those hounds were as about as good as they get.

We tracked lions inside the city limits of Montrose,, Delta, Grand Junction.........nobody ever reported a lion in town.

We brought in a well-known houndsman here in Alberta for the capture/collar portion of the study. Given the relatively small area we were working, it was amazing how many cats there were.

The spot an stock/calling is pretty effective from what I gather. Have seen one cat fleetingly so far.
We set up fairly similar to you method. I figured if it works for black bear, it should work for the cats.
So far we have seen the one cat, cut quite a number of tracks, mostly in the river valley so obviously a cat moving through.
Next Fall, I'll be hunting closer to the Hills likely.
Jeff

Boy I miss dog huntin, sadly we’ll never get it back.... really starting to notice my deer population declining...

cats don't seam to respect borders much , lots of cats in Ferry county crossing back and forth into Midway ,Rock Creek area.

norm

Curious as to who was the houndsman used in the alberta study.
Thanks

We see more cougars yearly here in northern Alberta. Rarely saw one 20 years ago.

An obvious question is whether the researchers provoked more kills by moving in quickly on fresh kills and spooking the cat away from eating it. Dwayne quoted an outfitter who suspected the same from when he spooked cats off of a kill. My son and I have spooked cougars off of fresh kills, before the cat got a bite of it one time, and the cat sometimes came back after we left and fed on his kill. But one time my son spooked a pair of lions off of a fresh kill and they did not ever come back. We assume that they had to go kill another deer to get one to eat.

In spite of studies, there is an awful lot we don't know about mountain lions. Looking out my window at the nearby mountains this morning it looks like a spring snow is sticking down at low elevation logging roads so I'm gonna go look for a track.

Okanagan;
Good morning to you my friend, I hope all is well in your world and with your fine family.

On the cougars being moved off of kills theme, your stories reminded me of a sheep seminar I attended way, way back in the day.

I want to say it was the Junction herd of Bighorns being discussed, but could be wrong on that detail. As well, in my mind it was Daryl/Dale Hiebert who gave the talk.

Anyway the coyotes both were a major predator themselves and it seems they'd also learned to chase cougars off of the sheep kills, so the cats would just move on and kill another sheep.

What they did at that time was to trap and shoot the local coyote population off as much as possible. When the new coyotes moved into the area to fill the void - as they do - they didn't know how to hunt sheep or chase cougars off of sheep kills, so it gave the sheep herd a chance to rebound. Interesting stuff anyway I thought.

I hope you find a track up there on this bright, sunny, but still too cold for the end of March Sunday sir. All the best to you all as we head into the spring.

Dwayne

Not shocked at all, Mt. Lions kill a lot of animals.

In the Black Hills, we are allowed to shoot females, and I am all for it. Best way to control a population is through the females.

Hey Dwayne, no lion for me today (actually yesterday since it is after midnight). The snow was melting ast and was gone from the lower half of the valley by the time I got out there. I should have been there an hour or two before daylight and looked for tracks by headlight, but I waited to see whether last evening's snow had stayed or not. I like an evening snow that gives critters all night to make tracks for me to find in the morning, but blew this opportunity by making a late start.

I picked a spot to call blind in a huge half bowl basin in the mountainside but so many Sunday dirt bikers, four wheelers, jeeps and target shooters were out that I decided that as a retiree I would come back on a week day when I have the place to myself.

In the case of cats I don't totally agree with that.

Wolves will do the same thing following the cats around and taking there kills.
Coyotes are a lot harder on some ungulates then people think.

Good chance for School kids to study big cats .
There was one hanging around a local school
In Okotoks .
They seem to be getting braver on the edge
Of the foothills ....we have a lot of deer in town .
Coyoting was poor this year ....big snow and
extreme cold ....

wouldn't say we are over run by them but that varies. this was on the 29 of January . picked up the tracks 100 yards from the house and he treed about 3 miles later.
i have had one come into my garage and eat the ham off a deer i had hanging. awesome animals.

A beaver-eating pussy, too.....

wish he would eat more! dang rodents killed my plum trees

Stew,

I am curious about your impression that taking more female mt. lions in not a good way to help control their population.
Will you explain what you mean on this subject please. I am always open to more information. Thanks.

not Stew but, i think the taking of females is a great way to reduce the population. as far as controlling the population i don't know.
we have a female here that has 4 kittens every 3 years, and raises them to maturity. you do the math on that one over a 20 year stretch.
if i get the chance she is going to be a rug.

I've no doubt cats are more active killing more biomass than we ever realized. I knew this by observing my female house cat. She was wired much more than any other cat I've owned to hunt, and hunt she did. She was so efficient she fed other cats I had with her trophies she brought home. Impressive animal and I can only imagine an much larger version of her killing a few hundred animals a year with ease.

One thing that bounces in my mind is the amount of aborted herbivores due to stress. I know that an cat attack is wham-bam its over, quick. Cats aren't the animal know for incredible endurance so they stalk and pounce just like a house cat. On the other hand wolves and coyotes and the dog family in general has incredible stamina and can chase for an log time and do so in coordinated patterns with their packs. With that in mind how many herbivores loose their unborn to the stresses of just the chase from coyotes and wolves despite escaping from being prey themselves.

I know we can only speculate such things but it may be the dog family of wolves and coyotes might also be more deadly than previously thought if we could get an number on prey kills and somehow a figure on how an pack kills the unborn by stress in long coordinated chases. It's really fascinating to think about.

"and there were brand new lion tracks in the snow about 25 yds behind me where my buddy couldn't see.."


Deceived by pussy again....

oldpinecricker:

You got that abortion thing right - and not just by wild ones.

In the mid-70's I was living in Pt Hope Alaska, a far northwestern Arctic Eskimo village. In two years, between arial surveys, the North West Arctic Caribou Herd crashed from about 250,000 to about 50,000. Officially it was deemed "mysterious". Well, I was there. I saw.

First of all two points: The Trans Alaska Pipeline down thru the middle of their range was in full construction mode, which may or may not have had anything to do with it.

The herd historically about every 20 years chooses not to migrate south through the passes of Brooks Range (Pipeline goes through Atigan Pass), but instead swings wide and migrates down the west coast instead, a couple hundred miles from the usual routes. Which puts them in or near 20 or so villages, all winter long. Several years ago, they chose a route south a cople hundred miles East - inland- of their usual route. Why? No one but a caribou knows. Maybe due to forage, but I think more likely due to a year or two's past vague remembrance of "danger- that way" ("hunting" pressure)

What I observed in Pt Hope I was told was repeated in all of the villages, with some variation as to degree.

In 1976, I could have taken you out on snow machine in April, and shown you a thousand or so abandoned carcases within 20 miles of Pt Hope alone, shot and left. Of more importance, perhaps, was the fact that the several cow caribou I killed at that time of year had no fetuses inside, whereas in December and January, they were all pregnant. (Hey, I did my part, killing 23 'bous , feeding about 10 people, that year, including a village elder who had no one who could or would hunt for him!)

I believe that the common "village" practice (then by most, fewer now, never by me) of "running and gunning" via snow machine caused most of the cows to abort over the course of a winter's intensive and extensive chasing they endured. Recruitment rate was a mere 5%, and limits were then installed. I don't remember now what they were, but the herd is now back up to 230,000 (down from 500,000 10 years ago ), now with a 5 per day limit, and some other nonsensical restrictions (you don't want to get me going....it's more raciall/cultural/political than game management).

This cause was conveniently ignored by state and federal agencies, and most especially so by the Eskimo community. Publically, anyway. It was "mysterious", after all.

they belong on the 3 -S list> SSS. way to many cats and wolves

To ALL,

Here in DOWNTOWN SA, we have at least ONE large male puma. = He has been photographed on several bank surveillance cameras, during his nightly rounds & seems to be a RESIDENT of the city.. - He is estimated to be 125-150# & appears healthy.

Here in TX, mountain lions are relatively rare & are NOT game animals. - Thus, they may be taken 24/365.

TPWD asks those persons, who spot or kill a puma to report it to their local Game Wardens. - Our game biologists MAY want to collect blood and/or tissue samples of your kill.

yours, tex

Ain't it funny how many different names folks call the same animal.

rost495,

My beloved grandfather, who was born in 1873, would have called the Mountain Lion a PAINTER, MOUNTAIN CAT, PUMA, PANTHER or a CATAMOUNT.

yours, tex