Food niche of Puma concolor in central Mexico
Octavio Monroy-Vilchis, Yuriana Gómez, Mariusz Janczur & Vicente Urios
Optimal foraging theory predicts that predators choose the most energetically profitable prey. At the northern limit of its distribution the puma Puma concolor tends to prey on large mammals, whereas at the southern limit its prey comprises medium-sized and small mammals. We analysed the puma’s food habits in Central Mexico, and concluded that the nine-banded armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus is the main prey, followed by the white-nosed coati Nasua narica and white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus. The puma’s standardised niche breadth (B’) was 0.21 and was in accordance with the expected in the exponential model. We compared this with niche breadths recorded in other studies carried out in the Americas. After a forest fire, puma changed their feeding habits and began to hunt prey > 6.1 kg more frequently. Food preferences of puma in Central Mexico resemble those recorded for puma in South America rather than the preferences recorded for puma in other North American populations.
Key words: carnivore, diet, mountain lion, Sierra Nanchititla, State of Mexico
Octavio Monroy-Vilchis*&Vicente Urios, Estación Biológica Terra Natura, Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad, Universidad de Alicante, Fundación Terra Natura, Apartado 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain - e-mail addresses: omv@uaemex.mx (Octavio Monroy-Vilchis); vicenteurios@yahoo.es (Vicente Urios)
Yuriana Gómez & Mariusz Janczur, Estación Biológica Sierra Nanchititla, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Instituto Literario 100, Centro, 50000, Toluca, México - e-mail addresses: kodiaky@hotmail.com (Yuriana Gómez); majmx@interia.pl (Mariusz Janczur)
*Present address: Estación Biológica Sierra Nanchititla, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Instituto Literario 100, Centro, 50000, Toluca, México
Corresponding author: Octavio Monroy-Vilchis
Received 27 June 2007, accepted 21 May 2008
Associate Editor: Paolo Cavallini
Wildl. Biol. 15: 97-105 (2009)
DOI: 10.2981/07-054
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