Cougars (Puma concolor) Killed by North American Porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum)

Authors

  • L. Mark Elbroch
  • Rafael Hoogesteijn
  • Howard Quigley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v130i1.1793

Keywords:

Cougar, Puma, Puma concolor, North American Porcupine, Erethizon dorsatum, fitness consequences, mortality, predation

Abstract

Predation is inherently risky, and Cougars (Puma concolor) are occasionally injured while hunting prey. Between 2001 and 2015, we documented the cause of death of 59 Cougars (22 subadults and 37 adults) in the Southern Yellowstone Ecosystem, Wyoming. Here we report on 2 animals (9% of subadult mortalities) killed as a result of complications after hunting North American Porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum). We also report an observation of a Cougar killed in Venezuela by quills of a Prehensile-tailed Porcupine (Coendou prehensilis). Porcupines may kill and wound more Cougars than previously suspected and may be an important cause of mortality, at least for subadult animals.

Downloads

Published

2016-01-01

Issue

Vol. 130 No. 1 (2016)

Section

Notes

License

Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact us.

 

To request use of copyright material,  please contact our editor, Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki: editor -at- canadianfieldnaturalist -dot- ca