What’s in your fridge?
I am posting this on behalf of project post doc Max Allen, who writes: This morning I went on a walk and found 3 fresh scats from last night. Two were from gray foxes and one was from a striped skunk, and all three were choc full of raspberry seeds. I myself had...
The Journeys of Young Pumas, and Welcome to Puma 56M
A young male puma was captured and returned safely to the wilds yesterday by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and San Mateo Police. As scientists studying pumas, we often receive questions about pumas when this happens. Usually the first questions are...
51M Leaping
We hear that pumas are good climbers and jumpers, but we don't often get to see it. This awesome series of photos shows 51M, a ~4 year old male we originally collared in November, turning around on a tree trunk, climbing down, and then leaping to the ground. These...
CCRC Depredation Prevention Workshop
I would like to say a huge huge thank you to everyone who helped make the depredation prevention workshop possible yesterday! In particular, I would like to thank my co-organizer, Lewis Reed, Grey Hayes and the CCRC Education and Outreach Committee, the Santa Lucia...
Capture Frenzy – Welcome 52F, 53F, 54M, and 55F!
The Santa Cruz Puma Project has been ramping up our captures in the last month in order to better study the puma population of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Here's an introduction to 52F, 53F, 54M, and 55F! 52F is 5 years old and about 80 lbs. She has two kittens about 6...
Taking better wildlife photos: Do motion-triggered DSLR cameras impact wildlife?
Increasingly, motion-triggered DSLR (or digital single-lens reflex) cameras equipped with a flash are being used to take better photos of animals in the wild. These photos can be very valuable for conservation because they show the public the private lives of...
Just a big kitty…
Here is 26M gettin' down in front of one of our cameras. We stitched together this series of photos showing him rolling around on the ground, just like your cat on the front walk. [video width="640" height="360"...
25F Comes back to the Puma Project!
On February 3, puma project researcher Paul Houghtaling went looking for 25F again. In May 2012, 25F's collar stopped sending GPS data, and we have been attempting to get her a new collar ever since. After many previous attempts to track down 25f, Paul went back to...
Santa Cruz Pumas featured on BBC Science in Action podcast
This week, we published a paper on puma behavioral responses to human development and how they relate to kill rates in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We found that females spend less time at their deer kills when they are close to people, and therefore kill deer more often...
Collecting scat for conservation with the help of local volunteers
Have you ever seen an animal scat on the ground and wondered who it belonged to? Perhaps you pictured a bobcat slinking down the trail just before you, marking its territory before continuing its travels? Or a pair of coyotes cruising around looking for their next...
