We have a treat today! From the rain forests of tropical Ecuador, reader/biologist/photographer/evolutionist/naturalist Lou Jost sent us some Big Cat videos. Lou’s notes:
Jerry, I have some Youtube cat videos for you…very BIG cats. These are taken by a camera trap (set up by our crew, Javier Robayo, Juan Pablo Reyes, Jorge Brito, and Hector Yela) in a property we are trying to buy for our Dracula Reserve in northwest Ecuador. The camera site was baited with bananas because we were interested in small rodents. But we got these two puma (Felis concolor) as well [JAC: they’re called “cougars” or “mountain lions” in the U.S.]
The first one is a male, the same animal we have filmed more than 10km to the south during a different investigation. He marks the spot with urine, which later attracts the attention and approval of a beautiful female puma. Meanwhile a prey animal, an agouti (Dasyprocta sp), also takes an interest in the urine, and is probably less happy about it….
JAC: note the female’s “flehmen response“, opening her mouth and curling her lips, as she smells the male’s scent:
And here’s a screen capture of the female doing a flehmen:
pssst typos!
Could you be more specific, please?
Grocer’s apostrophe: “smell’s”
Ladyatheist, is “typos” a typo for “typo”?
A typist types his typos as he poses in a tie.
Fantastic Lou. Remember, if you’re ever looking for a do-boy to help out with your field work let me know. I’d probably have to fight with my daughter though.
Totally cool! I did not know that females would flehmen. I thought that was a male thing to assess the reproductive cycle of females.
Can they interbreed? Many generations of relatively isolated populations in refugia is practically a recipe for allopatric speciation, hence the recurring (and perfectly valid) effort to link refugia of (eg) rain forest by “corridors”.
The puma has a vast and mostly continuous range, because it is such a generalist. Pumas occupy everything from deserts to rainforests, ant every elevation from sea level to >4000m, and can cross minor water barriers. Individuals also like to wander long distances. So there are essentially no barriers for this species. A possible exception today is the Florida cougar or panther, an endangered highly inbred population which was once considered a valid subspecies. DNA tests have now shown it is not sufficiently distinct from other North American cougars, and that all the former subspecies of North America should be considered a single subspecies. Probably the Florida population was only recently isolated by human colonization of that state.
Well, Trump’s wall will split the species, at the very least. No?
Actually, that’s not a very funny joke, is it. Trump’s wall is going to mess up a lot of non-flying species.
Yes, for example it will probably eliminate jaguars from the US fauna, as the US population of that species has not been sustainable.
Oh look – I haven’t fallen out of my chair in astonishment!
I hope whoever does the environmental impact statement for the wall will mention those kinds of impacts.
Didn’t Trump just sack the Environmental Protection Agency? So as soon as someone suggests one of these useless restrictions on business freedom, they’ll be swept away with a Presidential Decree (or whatever they’re called).
Naturally, it would be unfair to the rest of business to free ONLY the Gigantic Presidential Penis Extension Vanity Project from this regulatory burden, so they’ll be lifted for all businesses.
It’s a big byoootiful wall too, so there’s no need at all for worksite safety regulations – or recording – so they’ll be going pretty soon too.
Interesting information about olfaction.
Great videos and info. Thanks!
Wow Lou! You might have puma kittens! I hope you get the reserve.
As for hoping the impact on wildlife gets mentioned in relation to Trump’s wall, I doubt he would care. If asked, he’d make some joke about mules that his base will love, and forget about it.
Sometimes laws get followed even when they are unpopular with leaders. One can always hope.
When I lived in Texas, endangered species shut down development in western Austin for several years, while George Bush was governor.
Oops, this was addressed to Heather, #7.
Lovely!