Amazing species- Day 1

Puma concolor

Hello, community interested in science!

My name is Hugo Anselmo and I’m 23 years old. Some curiosities about me: my favorite food is carbonara; my favorite series is Euphoria; as a dedicated scout, my motivation is a quote from the founder of the Scouting, Robert Baden-Powell - “Leave this world a little better than you found it.”; my future objetive is the biggest cliché ever: be happy.

I did a graduation in Biology at the University of Aveiro and currently I’m doing a master degree in Ecology and Environment at the Faculty of Sciences of University of Porto. My main areas of interest are the Mastozoology and the Behavioral Ecology. Because of that, I’m doing my master's thesis, focused on the pumas (Puma concolor) behaviour, at REGUA (Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve), a NGO and a Private Natural Heritage Reserve), located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The puma is the most widespread native land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, with a geographic range representing about 22,735,268 km2, extending from Canada to the southern tip of Chile. Furthermore, the puma is the second-largest species of felid on the American continent and the fourth-largest in the entire world.

To monitor the population, I use camera traps and it is necessary to distinguish the different animals from each other through their natural marks: eventual scars, the spots on the muzzle, the color of the nose and shape/twist of the tail.

A very interesting behavior strongly exercised by male pumas is the scrape-marking, a way of marking territory by scratching the ground with its hind legs. In addition to keeping other males away, marking also has the function of attracting females.

By: Andre Lanna and Hugo Anselmo, REGUA and Caminho da Mata Atlantica

According to the bibliography, females smell the marks and can understand whether the male who marked is a dominant or a submissive one. Females prefer to mate with dominant males because that means their territory are bigger and, consequently, their offspring will be more protected. In some felids, the infanticide is common, meaning that the males can try to kill the cubs that are not from them, in an attempt to make females receptive to mating again, something that doesn't happen while they are still providing parental care for their cubs.

By: Andre Lanna and Hugo Anselmo, REGUA and Caminho da Mata Atlantica

To facilitate the understanding of these interactions between the pumas, I created a comic called “Captain Hook’s crush” that can be read on REGUA's instagram in portuguese or in english - @reguabr.

by: Hugo Anselmo

References:

Allen, M. L., Elbroch, L. M., Wilmers, C. C., & Wittmer, H. U. (2015). The comparative effects of large carnivores on the acquisition of carrion by scavengers. American Naturalist, 185(6), 822–833. https://doi.org/10.1086/681004

Allen, M. L., Wittmer, H. U., Houghtaling, P., Smith, J., Elbroch, L. M., & Wilmers, C. C. (2015). The Role of Scent Marking in Mate Selection by Female Pumas (Puma concolor). PLOS ONE, 10(10), e0139087. https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0139087

Allen, M. L., Wittmer, H. U., & Wilmers, C. C. (2014). Puma communication behaviours: Understanding functional use and variation among sex and age classes. Behaviour, 151(6), 819–840. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539X-00003173

Burdett, C., Theobald, D., Rondinini, C., Marco, M. Di, & Boitani, L. (2011). The Puma as an Umbrella Species for Conserving Western Hemisphere Carnivores Landscapes dynamics of Amazonian deforestation View project DNA-based method to investigate wolf predation ecology in a multi-prey system View project. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233765199

de Azevedo, F., Lemos, F., de Almeida, L., de Campos, C., Beisiegel, B., de Paula, R., Junior, P., Ferraz, K., & de Oliveira, T. (2013). Avaliação do Risco de Extinção da onça-parda Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771) no Brasil. Biodiversidade Brasileira, 3(1), 107–121.

Elbroch, L. M., Levy, M., Lubell, M., Quigley, H., & Caragiulo, A. (2017). Adaptive social strategies in a solitary carnivore. Science Advances, 3(10). https://doi.org/10.1126/SCIADV.1701218/SUPPL_FILE/1701218_SM.PDF

Nielsen, C., Thompson, D., Kelly, M., & Lopez-Gonzalez, C. A. (2015). Puma concolor (Puma). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 8235: 12. https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/18868/97216466