Class
Article
College
S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
Department
Wildland Resources Department
Faculty Mentor
Dan MacNulty
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
The wildland-urban gradient is a hotspot for human-wildlife conflict, as resources and land-use are often shared between the two. As humans encroach more into wildlife lands, humans become ecological players in urban, as well as wildland, ecosystems. Expanding into wildlife habitat creates gradients of human disturbance that can negatively alter ecosystem dynamics. Many species must adapt to human-dominated environments, or else face extinction. Cache Valley, Utah, has a growing wildland-urban interface that borders the southern Bear River Range, an extension of the Wasatch Front, and is mostly contained within Cache National Forest. Cache County is the sixth-fastest growing county in Utah, and is centered on the town of Logan, which is one of the five recognized metropolitan areas of Utah with a growing population of 140,000. Large carnivores are one of the most threatened mammal groups in the world due to urbanization of wildlands. Cougars (Puma concolor) are especially vulnerable to human expansion because of their large home ranges, small population sizes, and extensive prey biomass requirements. Cougar populations are decreasing in the wild as they face the threat of residential and commercial development. We conducted an occupancy survey of cougars, their prey items and humans with the use of trail cameras to identify their spatial use patterns in response to the increasing urbanization and human presence in the canyons of Cache National Forest as well as in the towns of Cache County. We have established a partnership with the cities of Smithfield, Logan, and Hyrum, private landowners, and the U.S Forest Service to place trail cameras to identify wildlife corridors and urban refuges for future city development plans. Studies of how particular species respond to resource changes associated with urbanization are critical to predicting how ecological communities are likely to be shaped by anthropogenic ecosystem transformations. Establishing a study in Cache Valley that evaluates the spatial ecology of cougars and their prey items, in both the urban and wildland areas, is crucial for future development policies. Humans and cougars are overlapping in their spatial and resource use. Thus, with our trail camera survey we have been able to identify exact locations of cougar use in correlation with human and prey item presence that could potentially reduce future human-wildlife conflict.Presentation Time: Thursday, 2-3 p.m.
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-11-2021 12:00 AM
Included in
Monitoring the Spatial Ecology of Puma Concolor Along a Wildland-Urban Gradient
Logan, UT
The wildland-urban gradient is a hotspot for human-wildlife conflict, as resources and land-use are often shared between the two. As humans encroach more into wildlife lands, humans become ecological players in urban, as well as wildland, ecosystems. Expanding into wildlife habitat creates gradients of human disturbance that can negatively alter ecosystem dynamics. Many species must adapt to human-dominated environments, or else face extinction. Cache Valley, Utah, has a growing wildland-urban interface that borders the southern Bear River Range, an extension of the Wasatch Front, and is mostly contained within Cache National Forest. Cache County is the sixth-fastest growing county in Utah, and is centered on the town of Logan, which is one of the five recognized metropolitan areas of Utah with a growing population of 140,000. Large carnivores are one of the most threatened mammal groups in the world due to urbanization of wildlands. Cougars (Puma concolor) are especially vulnerable to human expansion because of their large home ranges, small population sizes, and extensive prey biomass requirements. Cougar populations are decreasing in the wild as they face the threat of residential and commercial development. We conducted an occupancy survey of cougars, their prey items and humans with the use of trail cameras to identify their spatial use patterns in response to the increasing urbanization and human presence in the canyons of Cache National Forest as well as in the towns of Cache County. We have established a partnership with the cities of Smithfield, Logan, and Hyrum, private landowners, and the U.S Forest Service to place trail cameras to identify wildlife corridors and urban refuges for future city development plans. Studies of how particular species respond to resource changes associated with urbanization are critical to predicting how ecological communities are likely to be shaped by anthropogenic ecosystem transformations. Establishing a study in Cache Valley that evaluates the spatial ecology of cougars and their prey items, in both the urban and wildland areas, is crucial for future development policies. Humans and cougars are overlapping in their spatial and resource use. Thus, with our trail camera survey we have been able to identify exact locations of cougar use in correlation with human and prey item presence that could potentially reduce future human-wildlife conflict.Presentation Time: Thursday, 2-3 p.m.