How Living Near Mountain Lions Might Actually Make You Safer

Hearing nan roar of a upland lion successful nan region while you’re conscionable extracurricular your location mightiness sound scary. Yet surviving successful an area inhabited by these ample predators mightiness really make you safer.

New large-scale investigation shows that nan beingness of upland lions, besides known arsenic pumas aliases cougars, tin drastically alteration nan number of perchance deadly collisions betwixt cervid and vehicles by changing nan behaviour of their prey.

“It’s not easy to unrecorded alongside ample carnivores, and they are often implicated successful conflicts pinch people,” says Kaitlyn Gaynor, a wildlife ecologist astatine nan University of British Columbia, who wasn’t progressive successful nan caller research. “But this study shows that carnivores tin really trim conflicts pinch their prey species, often done analyzable ecological pathways.”

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Every year successful nan U.S., cervid are progressive successful much than 1.5 cardinal collisions pinch vehicles, resulting successful nan decease of much than 200 people, tens of thousands of injuries and billions of dollars successful damages.

The squad of scientists down nan caller study, published connected Wednesday successful Current Biology, wanted to spot whether pumas could play a domiciled successful decreasing those numbers.

The researchers analyzed information from 503 camera traps and 59 GPS collars search pumas’ beingness successful Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula betwixt 2020 and 2025. They besides looked astatine information connected nan distribution and behaviour of black-tailed cervid and elk successful nan scenery and connected collisions betwixt vehicles and nan animals. In those 5 years, nan cervid and elk were progressive successful much than 950 collisions pinch vehicles connected nan peninsula, which resulted successful 2 human’s deaths and much than 80 injuries.

The study showed that a precocious beingness of pumas led to a 76 percent simplification successful deer-vehicle collisions compared pinch areas wherever pumas’ beingness was lower.

The simplification wasn’t because pumas were preying connected nan cervid and reducing their wide numbers. Rather it resulted from nan upland lions instilling fearfulness successful nan deer, which shaped really nan prey animals moved successful nan landscape.

The beingness of pumas pushed cervid into much distant areas, making them 15 percent little apt to beryllium successful areas pinch galore roads. That mightiness beryllium because they tin find screen from predators successful nan much abundant vegetation successful those distant areas, says study co-author Mark Elbroch, a upland lion biologist and head of nan Puma Program astatine Panthera, a conservation organization. Pumas besides led cervid to enactment much progressive during nan time alternatively than astatine night, which is erstwhile nan predators are astir active. Drivers mightiness besides beryllium amended capable to spot nan cervid and debar collisions during daylight, Elbroch says.

Though coexistence betwixt pumas and humans tin beryllium challenging, Elbroch hopes this benignant of investigation tin item really ample predators tin bring benefits to quality communities that unrecorded alongside them, particularly successful ray of nan predators’ earthy description and imaginable reintroductions. “I dream that it helps group beryllium much tolerant of surviving alongside these animals erstwhile they recognize that location is tremendous worth successful having them unrecorded alongside us,” he says. “They're redeeming lives. They’re reducing harm to infrastructure. They’re redeeming millions of dollars conscionable successful our place.”