Volume 178, October 2014, Pages 136–145
- a Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada
- b Talus Environmental Consulting, 127 Silver Valley Rise, Calgary, AB T3B 4W9, Canada
- c Golder Associates Ltd. 102, 2535 – 3rd Avenue S.E., Calgary, AB T2A 7W5, Canada
- Received 12 February 2014, Revised 24 July 2014, Accepted 26 July 2014, Available online 31 August 2014
Highlights
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- Evaluated cougar adaptability to habitat modification using RSFs.
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- Cougars selected for edge habitat while avoiding open habitat and core forest.
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- Functional response analysis indicated flexible habitat selection patterns.
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- Avoidance of anthropogenic features lessened at night and with availability.
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- Cougar persistence in human-dominated landscapes may depend on local tolerance.
Abstract
Large
carnivore populations are imperiled worldwide through habitat loss,
insufficient prey, and intolerance by people, promoting concerns that
their populations will persist only in protected areas and remote
regions. This assumption is challenged by recent colonization of areas
with high human use in the former ranges of several carnivore species,
including cougars (Puma concolor). We hypothesized that cougars
adjust their behavior to accommodate anthropogenic development,
facilitating successful use of modified habitats. We tested this
hypothesis using resource selection functions for 42 individual cougars
maintaining home ranges across a gradient of anthropogenic development.
We evaluated variation in selection among individual cougars by time of
day, home-range location (i.e., rural vs. wilderness cougars), and using
functional response curves. Cougars stayed further away from both roads
and buildings during the day than they did at night, and wilderness
cougars showed stronger avoidance of anthropogenic features than did
their rural counterparts. Selection patterns of individual cougars
varied greatly, and some of this variation was explained by the
functional response. For example, cougars decreased their avoidance of
some anthropogenic features as those features became more prevalent on
the landscape. Failure to account for potential functional responses in
habitat selection could lead to overestimation of negative impacts of
development for adaptable large carnivores. Given high adaptability to
anthropogenic habitat modification displayed by cougars, cougar
persistence in increasingly developed landscapes may depend more on
human tolerance than on maintaining large tracts of pristine wilderness.
Keywords
- Cougar;
- Puma concolor;
- Functional response;
- Resource selection function;
- Habitat selection;
- Behavioral flexibility
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