Tracking and Monitoring Study

The Teton Cougar Project was initiated in 2000 by Howard Quigley under the banner of the Hornocker Wildlife Institute/WCS. In 2003, Teton Cougar Project oversight was transferred to Craighead Beringia South, under the direction of Howard and his co-principal investigator for the project, Derek Craighead. They quickly recognized this project was the missing piece in the development of their goal of combining databases on the four largest carnivores in the contiguous United States - wolves, cougars, grizzly bears, and black bears. With their mutual track records as leaders, wildlife professionals, and advocates of higher education, Howard and Derek are now driving this project to be the foundation for their landscape conservation approach, based on carnivore ecology. The Project is designed to continue through 2013, during which time, activities will be intensified to more thoroughly document the demographic dynamics of cougars in the Jackson Hole area. Concurrently, Project biologists will continue to examine cougar predation, quantify cougar behavior associated with human development, and integrate data collection with researchers currently working on wolves, grizzly bears, and black bears. Information obtained through this work will be essential to understanding cougar ecology, cougar-carnivore interactions, and long-term conservation of all carnivores in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and beyond.

This Project continues to contribute new knowledge about cougars. National Geographic recently completed one-hour documentary about cougars. In addition, Jesse Newby a biologist on the Project received his M.S. from the University of Montana in 2011 from his work on this Project.

Objectives and Goals

The overall objective of this field study is to quantify cougar ecology in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Specific goals are to:

1. Document the characteristics of the cougar population, including population size, and vital rates (survival, mortality, and natality);
2. Characterize cougar predation on elk, mule deer, and other species, assessing changes over time and characterizing the influence of other large carnivores;
3. Quantify cougar habitat use, especially as it relates to other large carnivores and to human development;
4. Develop methods to monitor cougar populations through non-invasive techniques; and,
5. Communicate research findings to state and federal agencies, the general public and scientific community through technical reports, research updates, field trips, presentations and peer reviewed journal articles.

Results to Date

The TCP has radio-collared, marked, and followed more than 109 individual cougars, documenting their territories, food habits, and population dynamics. The study area, approximately 2,300 km2, extends from the town of Jackson to the northern edge of Grand Teton National Park, contains an estimated 12-14 resident, adult cougars. Although the area contains six ungulate species preyed upon by cougars, including bighorn sheep and moose, the most common prey documented in the cougar diet in Jackson Hole has been elk. This is not unexpected, given the large number of elk living in the area; but, for some as yet unknown reason, there has been a dietary shift in recent years to mule deer. The Project will continue to document this change, and seek explanations. With the abundance of prey, also, the dynamics of the cougar population is of great interest. That is, how many young are born each year? How many survive? And, do they remain in the area? To answer these and other questions, we use satellite-assisted radio-collar technology to identify cougar dens and track kittens from an early age. We will continue to monitor cougar movements, predation, and the population demography of all radio-collared study animals through December 2013. At that time field work will be completed with the removal of radio-collars from all marked cats.

Cougar Monitoring Project

With the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), the TCP is developing a plan for non-invasive sampling and monitoring of cougars. This is a great opportunity to advance the science, given the number of marked individuals in the system now and in the coming years. As we enter the final three years of studying cougar ecology in the Jackson Hole area, development of these techniques provides a fitting capstone to a 13-year study and a lasting contribution to cougar conservation in this system.

As it is designed now, local trained citizens would take over the camera trapping and winter track transect sampling in 2014 and continue for the future. The results would be available to the state wildlife agency for their management and conservation efforts, available to NGOs and local citizen communities to give them attachment to the wildlife of the area, and the annual camera trapping can be used to train students and other educational institutions in the valley.

The Big Picture

The TCP was established to seek important answers to pressing questions and needs in cougar conservation. In a study area encompassing Grand Teton National Park and the lands to the east and south of the park – taking in all of the significant land management issues for cougars – the TCP is perfectly positioned to document cougar biology and ecology in these varied landscapes.

Given that cougars interact with wolves, and they utilize the same prey base, there is an important need to examine these interactions through field investigations. Recent wolf and grizzly bear re-colonization of Jackson Hole and adjacent areas in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem provides a unique opportunity to evaluate cougar ecology and cougar-carnivore interactions during and after the re-colonization process. Data collection will be enhanced through collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

The TCP will not only provide important insights into cougar and carnivore ecology, but it will also provide guidance to wildlife managers as they strive to sustain fully functioning ecosystems in the Northern Rockies and other regions where carnivore management and conservation are important issues.

Personnel

The Teton Cougar Project director is Howard Quigley, Ph.D. of Panthera, who is assisted by co-principal investigator, Derek Craighead, President of Craighead Beringia South. Mark Elbroch is the Project leader working with Marilyn Cuthill as project coordinator and Project biologists Pete Alexander and Jesse Newby to conduct a variety of Teton Cougar Project operations. Boone Smith assists with immobilizing the cougars in order to gather data and equip them with radio collars.

Cooperators

The Teton Cougar Project works closely and in accordance with a variety of cooperators, collaborators, and permitting agencies and organizations, including Panthera, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the National Elk Refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wolf Recovery Program for Wyoming, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Utah State University, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Funding

The Teton Cougar Project is funded in part by grants and donations from organizations and individuals interested in the proper management, conservation, and stewardship of our natural resources, including wildlife. All donations are tax-deductible and Craighead Beringia South is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization.