by paulh | Dec 21, 2013 | field notes, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
A trail camera we have posted at a puma scent marking site caught this brief glimpse into the busy life of a mother puma. Believe it or not, despite hundreds or thousands of trail camera videos of pumas traveling, this is the first one we’ve captured of...
by yiwei | Dec 16, 2013 | puma bios, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
We’ve talked a lot on this blog about some of the common ways pumas get killed in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Most of the time, adult pumas die due to something human related (e.g., by being shot or hit with a car). Sometimes, pumas will also be killed by male...
by yiwei | Oct 31, 2013 | field notes, puma bios, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
This morning, we learned that 39M, the downtown puma from Santa Cruz, was hit and killed on Highway 17 around Vine Hill Road. When we caught the young male back in May, we recognized that his survival in the coming months would be difficult. After getting his new...
by veronica | Oct 9, 2013 | field notes, puma bios, puma ecology
Weighing in at 84 pounds, and around 14 months old, last week we welcomed 41M to the study. In this video, you can see 41M walk into the trap while his sibling looks on. The door closes behind him, distracting him for a moment, but then he returns to chowing down on...
by veronica | Aug 19, 2013 | puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
We’ve talked before about the dangers of crossing Highway 17, you may remember 16M, or Atlas, crossed dozens of times and was stuck and injured once. Many pumas and other animals are not as lucky and are killed. Some animals try and dart across highways, while...
by cwilmers | Aug 16, 2013 | puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
A couple weeks ago, 36m visited the quad outside of my office building, and took care of our pesky deer problem. No really, he killed a deer and fed on it for a couple of nights two feet from the Earth and Marine Sciences building and about 50 feet from our...
