Publications by authors named "Hilary Cooley"
The effects of increased mortality on the spatial dynamics of solitary carnivores are not well understood. We examined the spatial ecology of two cougar populations that differed in hunting intensity to test whether increased mortality affected home range size and overlap. The stability hypothesis predicts that home range size and overlap will be similar for both sexes among the two areas.
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- The study tests the compensatory mortality hypothesis in two cougar populations in Washington, comparing heavily hunted and lightly hunted groups in terms of population dynamics and mortality rates.
- The heavily hunted population showed higher hunting mortality rates and lower kitten survival, while ecosystem responses like reproduction and survival did not align with the hypothesis.
- Researchers concluded that heavy hunting led to negative impacts on population vitality, indicating that wildlife managers should be cautious about assuming compensatory mortality effects in their regulations.
Sport hunting has provided important economic incentives for conserving large predators since the early 1970's, but wildlife managers also face substantial pressure to reduce depredation. Sport hunting is an inherently risky strategy for controlling predators as carnivore populations are difficult to monitor and some species show a propensity for infanticide that is exacerbated by removing adult males. Simulation models predict population declines from even moderate levels of hunting in infanticidal species, and harvest data suggest that African countries and U.
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- Carnivores are often hunted for sport and human population control, with the assumption that it helps manage populations while still ensuring some remain viable.
- Hunting impacts vary based on factors like social structure and reproductive habits, with cougars showing resilience despite hunting efforts.
- A study on cougars in a small area found that while hunting was expected to decrease populations, immigration from surrounding areas kept numbers stable, leading to shifts in age and gender ratios rather than a decline.