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.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Here are LF1's locations for the last 10 days. Looks like she has successfully cached two large prey items during that time. The red circle indicates the location of the likely den site. IF she did give birth around the 6th of August those cubs are about 54 days old at this point. Logan and Sweanor, working in the San Andres mountains to the east of our study site, found that during the first 8 weeks of a cubs life, the mother's average distance from the den was about 1 km. They also found that the average age at which cubs moved more than 1.5 Km from the den was 50 days. Cubs are quite agile by this age. Since LF1 has spent so many consecutive days way from the suspected den site at these two kills, we can reasonably hypothesize that the cubs have left the den and are at these kills with her. That is, of course, if there actually are any cubs! We hope to have confirmation soon.

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