Surplus killing by pumas Puma concolor : rumours and facts

LUCHERINI, MAURO; GUERISOLI, MARIA DE LAS MERCEDES; LUENGOS VIDAL, ESTELA M.

MAMMAL REVIEW

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2018

0305-1838

Surplus killing (i.e. predation in which predators kill more prey than necessary to satiate their hunger) appears to be widespread in carnivores and has the potential to exacerbate human carnivore conflict. Nevertheless, little is known about the frequency of surplus killing or about its impact on livestock.2. We review the information available on surplus killing by pumas Puma concolorand use data from central Argentina to quantify its impact on ranching and toanalyse both its causes and its implications for puma human conflicts.3. We reviewed 73 publications and found nine mentions of surplus killingevents from six countries. The sheep was by far the most commonly affectedlivestock species. In central Argentina, surplus killing was reported by 25, 33%of the ranchers. In this region, the number of livestock killed during eachevent ranged from seven to 160 (median = 23) for the literature reports andfrom two to 70 (median = 7) in the records we personally collated. Thenumber of individual animals killed per event was greater for interview-basedsecond-hand reports than for first-hand reports and verified events.4. Our results indicate that although surplus killing by pumas is uncommonlyreported in the literature, it may be locally recurrent. Although surplus killing may be overestimated in interview-based reports, it can produce significant losses for sheep and goat ranchers, may strongly exacerbate puma human conflicts, and should be considered in puma human conflict mitigationstrategies.5. Ranchers typically attributed surplus killing to female pumas teaching kittens to hunt. However, there is little evidence supporting this interpretation. Surplus killing by pumas may be more likely to occur in situations where the predators normal hunting sequence is disrupted by the accessibility of large numbers of easy prey.Confinement, stormy weatherand poor antipredator behaviour may favour the occurrence of surplus killing events on livestock.