Mountain lions fear humans, fleeing when they hear human voices.
(Image by Sebastian Kennerknecht/pumapix.com)
New study of mountain lion behavior suggests that the big cats don’t like their encounters with humans any more than we do. Researchers studied the behavior of pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains to see how the animals react to the sound of human voices. The team placed audio equipment at the puma kill sites; when a puma came to feed, a motion-activated technology would broadcast recordings — either of people talking at regular conversation volume, or Pacific tree frog vocalizations. A hidden camera then captured the puma’s responses. The team discovered that, in the majority of cases, pumas fled the site after hearing human voices. The noise also disrupted the predators’ feeding routine: after being spooked by voices, pumas took longer to come back to their kill, and fed on their prey for shorter periods of time. These findings are particularly valuable in regions where puma’s hunting grounds overlap with residential areas, and as human and mountain lion encounters increase — especially on parts of Vancouver Island.
Authors:
Smith JA, Suraci JP, Clinchy M, Crawford A, Roberts D, Zanette LY, Wilmers CC
Canadian authors:
Devin Roberts, Michael Clinchy, Department of Zoology, Western University, London, ON, Email: mclinchy@uwo.ca; Liana Zanette, Department of Biology, Western University, London, ON, Email: lzanette@uwo.ca
Original paper published in Proceedings of Royal Society B: Biological Sciences on June 20, 2017.
