Puma population limitation and regulation: What matters in puma management?

Abstract

ABSTRACTWildlife managers require reliable information on factors that influence animal populations to develop successful management programs, including the puma (Puma concolor), in western North America. As puma populations have recovered in recent decades because of restrictions on human‐caused mortality, managers need a clear understanding of the factors that limit or regulate puma populations and how those factors might be manipulated to achieve management objectives, including sustaining puma and other wildlife populations, providing hunting opportunity, and reducing puma interactions with people. I synthesized technical literature on puma populations, behavior, and relationships with prey that have contributed to hypotheses on puma population limitation and regulation. Current hypotheses on puma population limitation include the social limitation hypothesis and the food limitation hypothesis. Associated with each of those are 2 hypotheses on puma population regulation: the social regulation hypothesis and the competition regulation hypothesis. I organize the biological and ecological attributes of pumas reported in the literature under these hypotheses. I discuss the validity of these hypotheses based on the limits of the research associated with the hypotheses and the evolutionary processes theoretically underlying them. I review the management predictions as framed by these hypotheses as they pertain to puma hunting, puma‐prey relationships, and human‐puma interactions. The food limitation and competition regulation hypotheses explain more phenomena associated with puma and likely would guide more successful management outcomes. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.