The amount of time female pumas spend with their kittens

John W. Laundré & Lucina Hernández

In the sport hunting of pumas (Puma concolor), most states and provinces of the United States and Canada do not allow the killing of females with kittens. However, female pumas can be away from their kittens and if detected by hunters at these times, can be mistakenly killed. To assess the extent females with kittens might mistakenly be killed we need to have estimates of the percent of time female pumas are with their kittens on a daily basis. Previous estimates range from 52% to 83% but are based on simultaneous locations taken during the day when pumas are least active. To provide a more accurate assessment of the time females are with their young, we analyzed telemetry data we collected over 24, 24-hour blocks for 15 females and their kittens. We collected data from June to September from 1989-1999 in southeastern Idaho and northwestern Utah. We found that females with 7-12 month-old kittens were within 200 m of their kittens an average of 16.2 ± 3.8% (n = 12) of time. These females were greater than 1.0 km from their kittens 30.9 ± 6.7% of the time. Three females with kittens in dens were near their dens 10.3%, 12.2% and 2.3% of the time. Females were within 200 m of their kittens the least amount of time (5.1 ± 2.1%, n = 8) from 11:00-14:30 hr and the most amount of time from 23:00-01:30 (29.4 ± 3.0, n = 6) and 07:00-10:30 (23.2 ± 3.1%). We conclude that there was a greater than 80% probability that a hunter would encounter a female without her kittens.