However, even the best deer models performed poorly compared to the puma models, likely due to the ubiquity of mule deer in the region. The best occupancy models for mule deer indicated the importance of roads and shrub cover. Instead, pumas preferentially occupy habitats that facilitate their stalk and ambush hunting strategy, rather than higher prey densities, per se. Despite being considered as the archetypical ambush hunter, some studies suggest a certain degree of flexibility in puma hunting styles, habitat needs, and diets (Anderson, 1983 Hornocker & Negri, 2010 Iriarte et al. They are also called sit-and-wait predators as they avoid fatigue.
Our results indicated that pumas primarily occupied forested habitats and did not choose habitats with abundant deer. Ambush predators are carnivorous animals that capture or trap prey by stealth, luring, or by (typically instinctive) strategies utilizing an element of surprise. Our goal was to determine whether pumas occupy habitats based on relative measures of prey availability (detection frequency), or ease of predation (density of stalking cover) and whether these predictors changed between seasons.
Once a target is found, the leopard moves slowly in the direction of the prey. According to scientists, these carnivores are known as ambush predators, preferring to catch their prey with skill and intelligenceshow more content It. Leopards have excellent hearing and vision, and use these senses to spot prey. Here we used data from 68 299 camera trap nights collected from 181 sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area over a four-year period to identify key predictors of habitat occupancy for pumas and their primary prey (mule deer Odocoileus hemionus). Jaguars and to a certain extent pumas prefer areas with dense vegetation, which provides stalking cover for ambush predators like jaguars (Sunquist and Sunquist. They are solitary hunters, and only come together to mate, though young leopards stay with their mother for up to 18 months. Previous work suggests that pumas occupy habitats where sufficient stalking cover and preferred prey are present, yet the intersection of these factors has rarely been assessed. Shrinking habitat and reduced connectivity mean that mapping habitat is increasingly important for species conservation in multiple-use landscapes. This problem is particularly acute for large, obligate carnivores like pumas Puma concolor which have persisted in North and South America in the face of habitat fragmentation and other anthropogenic disturbances. Habitat fragmentation represents the single greatest conservation challenge of the 21st century.
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