Mountain lions within the higher Los Angeles space are extra energetic at night time in areas with larger ranges of recreation.
“We are able to really feel actually hopeful about the truth that mountain lions are versatile of their timing of exercise,” mentioned TWS member Ellie Bolas, a PhD candidate on the College of California, Davis. “That most likely helps them keep away from us and contributes to coexistence between mountain lions and folks within the higher LA space.”
The Nationwide Park Service at Santa Monica Mountains Nationwide Recreation Space has been learning the carnivores for over 20 years within the higher LA space to research how they’re coexisting with urbanization and folks.
What’s distinctive about LA, Bolas mentioned, is that it’s one of many two megacities on the planet that helps massive felid predators—the opposite is Mumbai, India. “Folks within the higher LA space love being out in nature to hike, bike, or run, which is incredible,” she mentioned. “I additionally love recreating in these mountains. However that signifies that we’re sharing these pure areas with wildlife.”
Because the excessive ranges of recreation and urbanization on this system make it troublesome for animals to maneuver to areas that aren’t impacted by folks, researchers wished to learn the way mountain lion (Puma concolor) exercise could change in response to various ranges of recreation. Bolas and her collaborators, together with a highschool scholar and an undergraduate scholar, in addition to different seasoned biologists, drew upon the long-term information collected by the Nationwide Park Service to reply their questions. Bolas additionally helped add to this dataset, working with Seth Riley and Jeff Sikich, each with the Nationwide Park Service, to seize mountain lions and collar them with GPS units and accelerometers.
“If anybody will get to see a mountain lion within the wild, it’s superb, even for these of us who’re out within the discipline learning them,” she mentioned. “It’s an unimaginable privilege and duty to conduct analysis that helps us be taught extra about mountain lions and the way mountain lions and people could coexist.”
Bolas and her group analyzed the mountain lion location and exercise information together with publicly out there data that recreationists recorded on the Strava app, the place people doc their hikes, bike rides, path runs and different recreation.
In analysis Bolas introduced on the thirty first TWS Annual Convention in Baltimore and revealed in Organic Conservation, she and her colleagues discovered that total, mountain lions dwelling in areas with larger ranges of human recreation—like Griffith Park or the Verdugo Mountains—shifted their exercise towards the midnight and have been much less energetic round daybreak or nightfall. Additionally they spent extra time resting throughout sunlight hours. “Persons are climbing and biking within the pure areas the place mountain lions reside, and so resting and being nonetheless are nice methods to remain out of sight,” Bolas mentioned.
The group uncovered much less of a nocturnal sample in feminine mountain lions than males, although.
That’s probably as a result of females keep away from male mountain lions, which might threaten kittens and themselves. “It’s potential that feminine lions are constrained by avoiding male mountain lions, so that they don’t present as robust of a response towards recreation because the males,” she mentioned.
Bolas mentioned that the responsiveness of mountain lions to recreation is nice information. “This can be a very optimistic discovering,” she mentioned. “I believe that we will be actually appreciative of the flexibleness of mountain lions within the timing of their exercise and the way that helps them utilizing the identical areas as folks.”
Nonetheless, she mentioned, mountain lions within the higher LA space face threats of habitat fragmentation, busy roadways, frequent wildfires, and publicity to rodenticides, so altering exercise patterns could also be including one other stressor to an already burdened inhabitants. “Animals want a sure period of time in a 24-hour interval to be energetic to allow them to hunt and journey and defend themselves,” she mentioned. “Whereas mountain lions are already nocturnal, altering the timing of exercise or how energetic they’re could also be costing them when it comes to power out there.”
However Bolas mentioned that by merely being conscious that they’re sharing this house with wild animals, folks may also help assist coexistence with mountain lions. “That may actually come into play for folks driving roads at night time,” she mentioned. “Automobile collisions are a serious supply of mortality for mountain lions in and round LA, so slowing down could make an enormous distinction.”
This article by Dana Kobilinsky was first revealed by The Wildlife Society on 21 November 2024. Lead Picture: Feminine mountain lion, P65, walks along with her kittens. Credit score: Nationwide Park Service.
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