Cougars (Puma concolor) Control Feral Horse (Equus caballus) Populations in Some Environments
“Incidentally, the Pleistocene cougars that lived in North America were not directly ancestral to cougars that live on this continent now. They were an extinct ecomorph that grew slightly larger than modern cougars and may have had spotted fur. According to genetic evidence, all modern North American cougars descend from a population originating in eastern South America about 10,000 years ago. Strange as it may seem, this population completely replaced the Pleistocene ecomorph.”
The interesting bit.
They need to control them more, since they have no other predators, the horses need to be gone, there destroying the habitat for the native species!
Amen!
I found this part pretty interesting – from the abstract of the article cited:
“Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) comprised 91% of prey items killed on the Sierra Nevada reference site but only comprised 29% of prey items in the Great Basin study area…. Diets of cougars in the Great Basin were composed predominantly of horses (59.6%, n = 460 prey items; 13 individuals). Ten cougars regularly consumed horses, and horses were the most abundant prey in the diet of 8 additional individuals in the Great Basin. Cougars on average killed 0.38 horses/week in the Great Basin (range=0.00–0.94 horses/week).”