Food habits of puma (Puma concolor) in the Andean areas of Tamá National Natural Park and its buffer zone, Colombia
Keywords:
Andes, biomass, dietary habits, puma.Abstract
Even though the puma (Puma concolor) is the second largest felid in America and is widely distributed in both the continent and in Colombia. Knowledge about its food habits in many areas of the Neotropics, especially in the highlands, is still limited. We surveyed nine localities in Tamá NNP (National Natural Park) and its buffer zone monthly from June 2012 to May 2015, between 2,067 and 3,500 masl. We surveyed three linear transects of 2 to 3 km in each locality searching for scats, which were located mainly on mountain ridges. We analyzed fecal contents and estimated the minimum number of samples needed to describe puma diet, as well as the absolute frequency of records for each prey species, their relative frequency of occurrence, and biomass consumed. Potential prey species were identified using photos from camera traps at the same localities. Fecal analysis (n = 45) suggests at least eight species of medium-sized mammals as prey. Of these, three species were the most frequent, contributing 67.87 % of the biomass consumed: Nasua nasua, Mazama rufina and Cuniculus taczanowskii. The latter is a newly reported food item for the puma. No large or domestic species were recorded as part of the species’ diet for the study area, in spite of its availability. Considering the potential conflict with communities surrounding the protected area, by the alleged consumption of farm animals by this and other felids, it appears that the availability of wild prey in Tamá NNP is suitable for puma and apparently the species does not need to use alternative prey as livestock. Our data suggest that the minimum number of samples required to estimate the diet in our study area varies between 31 and 41, suggesting that our results (n = 45) are a good estimate of the species’ diet. This work highlights the importance of expanding the knowledge about puma foraging ecology in order to generate better conservation strategies for a species of great importance for the dynamics and stability of the Colombian Andean ecosystems.References
Ackerman, B., F. Lindzey, and T. Hemker. 1984. Cougar food habits in southern Utah. Journal Wildlife Manage 48:147-155.
Aranda, M. 2012. Huellas y otros rastros de los mamíferos grandes y medianos de México. Instituto de Ecología, A. C. Xalapa, México.
Arias-Alzate A., S. Botero-Cañola, J. D. Sánchez-Londoño and S. Solari. 2013. Presencia de felinos y evidencias de conflicto con humanos en tres regiones de Antioquia. Pp. 145-154, in Grandes felinos de Colombia (Payán Garrido, E., and C. Castaño-Uribe, eds.). Panthera Colombia, Fundación Herencia Ambiental Caribe, Conservación Internacional and Cat Specialist Group UICN/SSC. Bogotá, Colombia.
Arias-Alzate, A., C. A. Delgado-V, J. F. Navarro, and J. F. González-Maya. 2015. Presencia de Puma (Puma concolor) en un paisaje periurbano al sur del Valle de Aburrá, Antioquia, Colombia. Mammalogy Notes 2:24-28.
Barrio, J., and D. Tirira. 2008. Pudu mephistophiles. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.. Version 2017.3. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 30 April 2018.
Cáceres-Martínez, C. H., A. A. Acevedo-Rincón, and J. González-Maya. 2016. Terrestrial medium and large-sized mammal’s diversity and activity patterns from Tamá National Natural Park and buffer zone, Colombia. Therya 7:285-298.
Chinchilla, F. A. 1997. La dieta del jaguar (Panthera onca), el puma (Felis concolor) y el manigordo (Felis pardalis) (Carnívora: Felidae) en el Parque Nacional Corcovado, Costa Rica. Revista de Biología Tropical 45:1223–1229.
Crawshaw, P. G., and H. B. Quigley. 2002. Hábitos alimentarios del jaguar y el puma en el Pantanal, Brasil, con implicaciones para su manejo y conservación. Pp. 223–235 in El Jaguar en el Nuevo Milenio (Medellín, R. A., C. Equihua, C. L. Chetkiewicz, P. G. Crawshaw Jr., A. Rabinowitz, K. H. Redford, J.G. Robinson, E. W. Sanderson, and A. B. Taber, eds.). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Wildlife Conservation Society y Fondo de Cultura Económica. Ciudad de México, México.
Cunningham, S. C., C. R. Gustavson, and W. B. Ballard. 1999. Diet selection of mountain lions in southeastern Arizona. Journal of Range Management 52:202-207.
Currier, M. J. P. 1983. Felis concolor. Mammalian Species 1:1-7.
Dalrymple, G. H., and O. L. Jr. Bass. 1996. The diet of the Florida panther in Everglades National Park, Florida. Bulletin Florida Museum of Natural History 39:173-193.
De Angelo, C. 2009. El paisaje del Bosque Atlántico del Alto Paraná y sus efectos sobre la distribución y estructura poblacional del jaguar (Panthera onca) y el puma (Puma concolor). Mastozoología Neotropical 16:507-508.
De Azevedo, F. C. C. 2008. Food habits and livestock depredation of sympatric jaguars and pumas in the Iguaçu National Park Area, South Brazil. Biotropica 40:494–500.
De la Torre J. A., J. F. González-Maya, H. Zarza, G. Ceballos, and R. Medellín. 2018. The jaguar’s spots are darker than they appear: assessing the global conservation status of the jaguar Panthera onca. Oryx 52:300–315.
Eisenberg, J. F. 1989. Mammals of the Neotropics of Panamá, Colombia, Venezuela, Guayana, Surinam, Guayana Fancesa. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago, U. S. A.
Emmons, L. H. 1987. Comparative feeding ecology of felids in a neotropical rainforest. Behavioral ecology and sociobiology 20:271-283.
Foster, R. J., B. J. Harmsen, B. Valdes, C. Pomilla, and C. P. Doncaster. 2010. Food habits of sympatric jaguars and pumas across a gradient of human disturbance. Journal of Zoology 280:309–318.
González-Maya J. F., J. Racero-Casarrubia, and A. Arias-Alzate. 2013. Records of occasional puma hunting for consumption in Colombia. CatNews 58:9–10.
González-Maya, J.F., I.M. Vela-Vargas, J.S. Jiménez-Alvarado, A.P. Hurtado-Moreno, C. Moreno, I. Aconcha-Abril, and D.A. Zárrate-Charry. 2015. First sympatric records of Coatis (Nasuella olivacea and Nasua nasua; Carnivora: Procyonidae) from Colombia. Small Carnivore Conservation 52 & 53:93–100.
Gotelli, N. J., And R. K. Colwell. 2001. Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecology Letters 4:379-391.
Hernández G. C. 2008. Dieta, uso de hábitat y patrones de actividad del puma (Puma concolor) y el jaguar (Panthera onca) en la selva Maya. Revista Mexicana de Mastozoología 12:113-130.
Hernández-Guzmán A., E. Payán, and O. Monroy-Vilchis. 2011. Hábitos alimentarios del Puma concolor (Carnivora: Felidae) en el Parque Nacional Natural Puracé, Colombia. Revista de Biología Tropical 59:1285-1294.
Hoogesteijn, R., and A. Hoogesteijn. 2005. Manual sobre problemas de depredación causados por grandes felinos en hatos ganaderos. Wildlife Conservation Society. Campo Grande, Brazil.
Hunter, L., and P. Barrett. 2011. Carnivores of the world. Princeton University Press. New Jersey, U. S. A.
Iriarte, A., W. Franklin, W. Johnson, and K. Redford. 1990. Biogeographic variation of foods habits and body size of the America puma. Oecología 85:185-190
Klare U., F. Kamler Jan, and D. Macdonald. 2011. A comparison and critique of different scat-analysis methods for determining carnivore diet. Mammal Review 41:294-312.
Mazzolli, M. 2012. Natural recolonization and suburban presence of pumas (Puma concolor) in Brazil. Journal Ecology and Natural Environment 4:344-362.
Medina, C., C. Díaz, F. Delgado, G. Ynga, and H. Zela. 2009. Dieta de Conepatus chinga (Carnívora: Mephitidae) en un bosque de Polylepis del departamento de Arequipa, Perú. Revista Peruana de Biología 16:183-186.
Meneses L., J. Jiménez, A. Romero, C. Leal, D. Castillo, E. Heredia, F. Perez, I. Uribe, J. Contreras, and W. Toncel. 2004. Plan de manejo Parque Nacional Natural Tamá. Dirección Territorial Andes Nororientales Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. Toledo, Colombia.
Monroy-Vilchis, O., Y. Gomez, M. Janczur, and V. Urios. 2009. Food niche of Puma concolor in central Mexico. Wildlife Biology 15:97-105.
Moreno, R. S., R. W. Kays, and R. Samudio. 2006. Competitive release in diets of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and puma (Puma concolor) after jaguar (Panthera onca) decline. Journal of Mammalogy 87:808–816.
Novack, A. J., M. B. Main, M. E. Sunquist, and R.F. Labisky. 2005. Foraging ecology of jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor) in hunted and non-hunted sites within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala. Journal of Zoology 267:167–178.
Núñez, R., B. Miller, and F. Lindzey. 2000. Food habits of jaguars and pumas in Jalisco, Mexico. Journal of Zoology 252:373-379.
Oksanen, J., R. Kindt, P. Legendre, B. O’hara, M. H. H. Stevens, M. Oksanen, and M. A. Suggests. 2007. Vegan: Community ecology package 10:631-637.
Pacheco, L. F., A. Lucero, and M. Villca. 2004. Dieta del puma (Puma concolor) en el Parque Nacional Sajama, Bolivia y su conflicto con la ganadería. Ecología en Bolivia 39:75-83.
Pessino, M. E., J. Sarasola, C. Wander, and N. Besoky. 2001. Respuesta a largo plazo del puma (Puma concolor) a una declinación poblacional de la vizcacha (Lagostomus maximus) en el desierto del Monte, Argentina. Ecología austral 11:61-67.
Polisar J., I. Maxit, D. Scognamillob, L. Farrell, E. Melvin, M. E. Sunquist, and J. F. Eisenberg. 2003. Jaguars, pumas, their prey base and cattle ranching: Ecological interpretations of a management problem. Biological Conservation 109:297–310.
Pontes A. R., and D. J. Chivers. 2007. Peccary movements as determinants of the movements of larges cats in Brazilian Amazonia. Journal of Zoology 273:257–265.
Ramirez S. M. 2011. Observaciones de forrajeo y defensa de Nasuella olivacea (Carnívora: Procyonidae) en el Volcán Pasochoa, Pichincha-Ecuador. Boletín técnico 10, serie zoológica 7:47–50.
Rueda-Zozaya, R. 2010. Determinación de la dieta del Jaguar (Panthera onca) y Puma (Puma concolor) en el municipio de Tamasopo. San Luis Potosí, México.
Skewes O., C. Moraga, A. Arriagada, and J. R. Rau. 2012. El jabalí europeo (Sus scrofa): Un invasor biológico como presa reciente del puma (Puma concolor) en el sur de Chile. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 85:227-232.
Published
Issue
Section
License
THERYA is based on its open access policy allowing free download of the complete contents of the magazine in digital format. It also authorizes the author to place the article in the format published by the magazine on your personal website, or in an open access repository, distribute copies of the article published in electronic or printed format that the author deems appropriate, and reuse part or whole article in own articles or future books, giving the corresponding credits.
