- Title
- Puma (Puma concolor) sex influences diet in southwest New Mexico
- Creator
- Bernard, Kelly M T, Perry, Travis W, Mgqatsa, Nokubonga
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/462647
- Identifier
- vital:76322
- Identifier
- xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3398/064.083.0201"
- Description
- Puma (Puma concolor) is a wide-ranging, large felid species, and site-specific research on its diet is important for local management. Like the diets of other large felids, puma diets may differ between sex due to size dimorphism and between seasons due to changes in prey vulnerability and availability. We investigated the influence of sex and season on puma diet in southwest New Mexico in terms of prey species and size categories. Pumas (10 males, 6 females) were tracked with GPS collars for an average of one year per individual between February 2008 and July 2020. Puma location was recorded every 2 hours between 19:00 and 7:00, and kill sites were identified by a minimum of 2 GPS fixes occurring within 100 m and 100 hours of the first fix. Pumas specialized on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and elk (Cervus elaphus) but also preyed upon a range of other species of different sizes. The probability of making a medium-sized kill such as a mule deer was higher for females than for males, while the probability of making an extra-large kill, such as an elk, was considerably greater for males than for females. There was substantial variation in prey species and size categories killed by individual pumas, particularly of smaller-sized prey like collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) and skunks (e.g., Spilogale gracilis, Mephitis mephitis). Our findings concur with previous research on the importance of mule deer and elk in puma diet, demonstrate individual variation in prey killed, and may have management implications.
- Format
- computer, online resource, application/pdf, 1 online resource (11 pages), pdf
- Publisher
- Western North American Naturalist
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Western North American Naturalist, Bernard, K.M., Perry, T.W. and Mgqatsa, N., 2023. Puma (Puma concolor) sex influences diet in southwest New Mexico. Western North American Naturalist, 83(2), pp.153-164, Western North American Naturalist volume 83 number 2 p. 153 2023 1944-8341
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Western North American Naturalist Statement (https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/about.html)
- Rights
- Closed Access
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Collections
Mgqatsa, Nokubonga (Dr)
SDG 15. Life On Land
RU Department of Zoology and Entomology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Puma (Puma concolor) sex influences diet in southwest New Mexico.pdf | 619 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |