A group of sixth graders from Santa Cruz spent a rainy Saturday hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains, searching for mountain lions. They didn’t see any, but they certainly saw plenty of signs of the animals, including the remnants of past meals and, to their excitement, plenty of lion poop. At first they thought it could have been dog poop, but upon closer inspection, they found little bits of hair and bone in it—not something they find in animals’ reprocessed Alpo.
The Branciforte Middle School students were part of a program by the Felidae Conservation Fund, which is fighting to preserve the mountain lions’ natural habitat. Like big cats around the world, mountain lions are succumbing to human encroachments into their traditional habitats. The field trip followed a lecture on the puma and a predator-prey lab exercise.
During the hike, the students learned how scientists capture lions in specially constructed cages, tag them with electronic collars and track their movements through the forest. Slight movements detected by the collars let scientists know when the big cats are hunting or resting, or even just flicking their tails.
Information collected from the lions is helping researchers at the Felidae Conservation Fund and UCSC develop strategies to protect the mountain lion and their human neighbors. Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
