by yiwei | Jul 11, 2012 | field notes, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
We’ve been placing motion-sensing trail cameras in the Santa Cruz Mountains since 2008. Our cameras have captured pumas sleeping, playing, calling to each other, scent marking, and courting. However, never before have we caught a mountain lion behaving like...
by cwilmers | Jul 3, 2012 | field notes, puma bios, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
If the Santa Cruz pumas had a survivor contest, then 16M would undoubtedly be the winner. For the past two years, he’s made a dangerous living straddling both sides of Highway 17, a sinuous freeway connecting San Jose and Santa Cruz. All highways, for obvious...
by yiwei | Jun 18, 2012 | field notes, puma bios, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
When a young male kitten grows up, he must leave the relative safety of his mother’s protection to venture out into the world alone. If he hopes to survive and build his own territory, he must successfully avoid being killed by other male lions, including his...
by yiwei | Jun 11, 2012 | field notes, puma ecology, santa cruz pumas
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...
by yiwei | Jun 5, 2012 | events and outreach, puma ecology
This Sunday, Veronica and I (Yiwei) will be leading a walk at 10:30AM at Loch Lomond Recreation Area near Lompico, CA. We will search for gps-collared mountain lions who call the lake home and demonstrate some of the equipment we use in the Santa Cruz Puma Project....
by yiwei | May 25, 2012 | field notes, puma bios, puma ecology
On Tuesday, we went to Nisene Marks State Park in search of 23F’s new litter of kittens. After her last litter was eaten by an unknown predator before we could count the kittens, 23F quickly bred again and gave birth about three weeks ago! Using her GPS information,...
