We are conducting surveys, monitoring, and research on cougars (puma, mountain lion) on the Ladder Ranch in south-central New Mexico. Here, cougars are of particular interest given their effects on state-endangered desert bighorn sheep and other valuable big game. These projects are also resources for training and education, most notably through the Cougar Field Workshop.

Sunday, June 17, 2007


In the last few days we have received more coordinate data from our collared cougar. With these data we constructed an updated map (above). This map includes the approximate boundary of our bighorn sheep management area, which corresponds to the 5,000 ft contour. Our cougar seems to be faithful to a long narrow homerange along the Rio Grande. Fortunately, at least this cougar is staying away from the sheep. We have also identified a potential kill site from our previous data . The red arrow on the map indicates the location. Suspected kill sites are areas where the cougar has remained for 24 hours or more. Yesterday we slogged our way through incredibly dense brush to investigate this site. We were not disappointed!

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