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Maletzke, B.T.; Swanson, M.E.; Beausoleil, R.A.; Koehler, G.M.; Cooley, H.S.; Wielgus, R.B.
Cougar response to differnet levels of residential development
2014  Conference Proceeding

The proximity of cougars (_Puma concolor_) and people has always been a management concern, but little is known of how use of residential areas is affected by housing density levels and patterns. We used utilization distributions (UDs) derived from GPS, ARGOS and VHF collar data from 101 cougars to compare how different levels of residential development influence use across 4 study areas in Washington. We compared the UDs of cougars with residential development quantified from county tax parcel data using a Weibull modeling analysis and multiple comparison techniques. Cougars used predominantly undeveloped parcels at both the hectare (.. = 98.09% of use, SD = 3.12, n = 101) and km2 (.. = 81.59%, SD = 15.60, n = 101) scales and use decreased with increasing residential densities. Ninety-nine percent of cougar use of residential areas in western Washington occurred in areas with 846.0 residences/km2, which was significantly higher than in the eastern Washington study areas where cougars used areas with residential densities . 55.2 residences/km2. Diffuse, low density development facilitates higher levels of cougar use, but residential development at urban densities with adjacent wildland habitat comprised of dense vegetation appears to increase cougar use of residential development with minimal direct use of developed parcels. Wildlife managers and landscape planners could use the model to identify and maintain wildlife corridors in developing areas, locations to construct highway crossing structures to preserve connectivity, reduce use of residential areas by cougars, or identify where cougar use of residential development is likely to occur so as to target education and outreach efforts.

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