Mountain lions in areas with high human recreation are adjusting their behavior to avoid interactions with people.
These lions are becoming more nocturnal, preferring to be active at night when human activity is lower.
The study suggests that wildlife can adapt to human presence, offering a positive outlook for coexistence in urban environments.
Implications:
This research provides valuable insights into how wildlife species can adapt to changing environments.
It highlights the importance of managing recreational activities to minimize disturbance to wildlife.
Further research can explore the long-term impacts of human activity on wildlife behavior and population dynamics.
This study offers a glimmer of hope that, with careful planning and management, humans and wildlife can coexist even in densely populated areas.
The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as the panther, mountain lion, catamount and puma, is a large cat native to the Americas.
It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild, terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most widespread in the world.
It is an adaptable generalist species, occurring in most American habitat types.
It prefers habitats with dense underbrush and rocky areas for stalking but also lives in open areas.
The cougar is largely solitary.
Its activity pattern varies from diurnality and cathemerality to crepuscularity and nocturnality between protected and non-protected areas
Apparently correlated with the presence of other predators, prey species, livestock and humans.
It is an ambush predator that pursues a wide variety of prey
Diurnality is a form of plant and animal behavior characterized by activity during daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night.
Cathemerality, sometimes called "metaturnality", is an organismal activity pattern of irregular intervals during the day or night.
In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period
Nocturnality is a behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day
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