Studying pumas in semi-populated areas presents some interesting challenges. We caught and replaced the GPS collar on 19F a couple of weeks ago in the hills above Los Gatos/Monte Sereno, and Paul Houghtaling, one of our field biologists, and Yiwei describe her story below (19F photos by Tom McElroy):
19F in tree
19F is a very smart cat, which might have something to do with how she’s lived a respectable 7 years or so on the urban-wildland edge. We first caught her with a cage trap on a rainy night just after Thanksgiving, 2010. She weighed in at 110 pounds, almost 20 pounds heavier than any previous female we had captured. We suspected that she was pregnant, and our theory was soon confirmed when she gave birth to a litter of 2 kittens 2 weeks later.
19F kittens
For the first couple of months she barely moved at all, killing deer within a mile of the nursery where she kept her kittens. As the kittens grew older they began to accompany her to food, and then began traveling with her. Somewhere along the way, 1 of the kittens must have died. One weekend, a local resident witnessed her kill a large buck and his family spent the next 4 mornings watching her and the remaining cub feed on the deer. 19F was known to the people within her territory as the cat that was often seen crossing the rural roads in the dead of night, and many residents grew fond of their local cat.
So, fast-forward 12 months when it was time to recapture her. We tried to trap her in a cage again using fresh deer kills she had made (including kills she made on Christmas and New Years 2011, because lions can’t read calendars). Each time, she’d stay outside or stick her head inside the cage without setting off the trigger. She’d become what biologists term “trap shy”. As March 2012 arrived, the collar began signaling that it was running out of batteries, and we were running out of options…
19F during capture
Finally, in May, we got a break when she ventured onto property where we could use hound dogs, and we managed to capture her just before the batteries ran out. Her new tracking collar should last 2+ years rather than 1, and the next time we see her, 19F will likely have raised another litter of kittens. We hope she teaches those kittens well, because they will need all of her wisdom and knowledge to live successfully among the every growing population of humans and cars in the Santa Cruz Mountains.