IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Blecha, K.A.; Alldredge, M.W.; Boone, R.B. | |
| Cougar strategies of feeding site selection: energy maximization, classical optimal foraging, or fear driven human aversion? | |
| 2014 Conference Proceeding | |
Understanding predator foraging ecology in regions of increasing anthropogenic development is important when devising management strategies to reduce cougar-human conflicts. A pure energy maximization strategy predicts that patch use of a foraging cougar is driven by the selection of landscape factors that maximize encounters with primary prey species. However, previous research on fine scale patch-use rarely shows linear relationships with direct measures of prey availability. A pure fear-driven strategy predicts that patch use is driven by landscape factors associated with higher risk of mortality. While it is logical that a cougar would avoid areas linked to higher rates of mortality, testing this has been met with only limited success. Optimal foraging theory would attempt to explain patch usage as a behavioral balancing act between energy maximization and fear-driven human aversion. To test this, measures of prey availability and cougar usage must be attained tat scales suitable to the behavior. A novel camera trapping survey technique using 41,000 trap nights was used to model the background encounter rates across the landscape of various prey species of cougars, with particular emphasis on a range of housing densities. Predicted feeding site locations were derived from 49 cougars by a model using a training set of 4,400 clusters of ground-truthed GPS locations. Using conditional logistic regression analysis, characteristics of feeding sites (human housing, background prey encounter probabilities, and natural habitat) were compared to characteristics of GPS locations within the prior travelling sequence to test the degree of optimal foraging at a fine spatial scale. Preliminary results indicate direct and indirect relationships in reference to humans and background encounter rates of primary prey (deer). However, some difficulties arise when teasing out additional influences of highly used alternative prey species (i.e., raccoon, domestic cat), whose background encounter rates are driven by the presence of human dwellings. |
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