Mountain lion survival strategy

The following study shows how mountain lions (also known as cougars or cougars) adjust their behavior to survive in the mountains.

Research led by the University of Queens in Belfast has shown how mountain lions (also known as cougars or cougars) adapt their behavior to survive in steep mountains. And the answer is very simple - they save energy. As they climb or descend steep slopes, they go slower. The effect is to save energy "for transport".

The research was published in the journal Movement Ecology.

The study showed that mountain lions have the ability to assess what the terrain is like, then adjust the rhythm of walking to it, so that it is energy efficient. This is important because under current scenarios that are in the spotlight due to climate change and the loss of many habitats, large numbers of wildlife, especially large predators, have been forced to move to a new, energy-challenging environment as common areas are increasingly occupied by humans. . Accordingly, due to the new surfaces on which they move, the energy consumption of animals increases and affects the reduction of the population.

Mountain lion habitats are rapidly declining due to agriculture and urbanization (a 35 percent loss in California, projected by 2030). In addition, lions have fallen victim to traffic accidents on roads that now pass through their habitats, fires and fewer and fewer animals that are their prey. Therefore, the remaining individuals face a great challenge, to take shelter in the steepest, and energetically for them "most expensive", parts of the mountains.

The research team set itself the task of examining exactly how these big cats can cope with high energy consumption due to uninterrupted travel and hunting on steep terrain, and thus how they could survive if they remain completely isolated in this area.

During the research, scientists trained captive mountain lions to walk on a treadmill so they could measure how much oxygen they needed as they walked on a flat and sloping slope. The team also equipped wild mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California with GPS and accelerometers to track their movements and identify their preferred behavior. This allowed them to calculate the daily energy consumption of wild mountain lions and track when they decide to move through steep landscapes.

The results showed that even a relatively small slope of 6.8 degrees increases the energy use of mountain lions by over 40 percent. The researchers found that mountain lions then circled the slopes to reduce the angle at which they climbed, and also traveled much more slowly when climbing, conserving their energy. Mountain lions also spent most of their time resting (60 percent) and traveling less than 10 percent of the day, further conserving their energy.

With increasing human activity, the habitats of mountain lions in the lower parts are rapidly declining. Individuals who can survive high in mountain habitats will be crucial to population stability. We discovered how mountain lions survive in the mountains to conserve the energy that allows them to travel and survive on steep terrain. Conservation efforts must take into account the terrain in which they will inhabit as their hunting abilities could be compromised in landscapes that are too steep. This should also be taken into account when conserving habitats for other species that may not be as adaptable as mountain lions.

The next step in the research is to examine these energy storage mechanisms when moving on steep terrain of males and females during the period of kitten breeding.