Mountain lions avoid burned areas and increase risky behavior after wildfire in a fragmented urban landscape.
Curr Biol
; 32(21): 4762-4768.e5, 2022 11 07.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36270279
Urban environments are high risk areas for large carnivores, where anthropogenic disturbances can reduce fitness and increase mortality risk.1 When catastrophic events like large wildfires occur, trade-offs between acquiring resources and avoiding risks of the urban environment are intensified. This landscape context could lead to an increase in risk-taking behavior by carnivores if burned areas do not allow them to meet their energetic needs, potentially leading to human-wildlife conflict.2,3 We studied mountain lion behavior using GPS location and accelerometer data from 17 individuals tracked before and after a large wildfire (the 2018 Woolsey Fire) within a highly urbanized area (Los Angeles, California, USA). After the wildfire, mountain lions avoided burned areas and increased behaviors associated with anthropogenic risk, including more frequent road and freeway crossings (mean crossings increased from 3 to 5 per month) and greater activity during the daytime (means from increased 10% to 16% of daytime active), a time when they are most likely to encounter humans. Mountain lions also increased their amount of space used, distance traveled (mean distances increased from 250 to 390 km per month), and intrasexual overlap, potentially putting them at risk of intraspecific conflict. Joint pressures from urbanization and severe wildfire, alongside resulting risk-taking, could thus increase mortality and extinction risk for populations already suffering from low genetic diversity, necessitating increased connectivity in fire-prone areas.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Health context:
1_ASSA2030
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Wildfires
/
Puma
/
Fires
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Curr Biol
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article