Happy fall everyone! I wanted to share some fun news about our pumas. Based on their GPS information, it seems that 26M and 28F have been spending quite a bit of time together this last week in Sierra Azul Open Space and Almaden Quiksilver Park. I think we can safely say that we expect some Christmas/New Years kittens later this year!
26M and 28F hanging out
Because pumas are solitary creatures with large home ranges, the first hurdle in the relationship is to actually find each other. To help females, males will regularly make scrapes and leave scents throughout their territories. When a female is ready to mate, she can go search out these scrape locations and call around for a mate.
two collared cats!
Courtship and mating are the only times when two adult pumas of the opposite sex will associate with each other (at least, in a positive way). During this time, the male will accompany the female for several days, sharing romantic meals of deer carcasses and long walks in the moonlight. While this sounds very lovely, males do it mostly to guard their mates from other males. We have witnessed previously that females may sometimes sneak off to mate with another male when given the opportunity. As a female, it makes sense to confuse paternity because the more males you mate with, the less likely one of those males will kill your offspring in the future.
Puma relationships are short and… well, brief. After a few days, the couple will go their separate ways: 26M to look for more females and guard against any invading males and 28F to fatten up for her pregnancy. With any luck, 26M will hold on to his territory for the next two years, thus protecting 28F’s kittens from invading adult males. Maybe in two years, 26M and 28F will meet up again for another fall fling.