Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
11
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
11 results for “mountain lion”
Data from: Impacts of management practices on habitat selection during juvenile mountain lion dispersal
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Identification of source-sink dynamics in mountain lions of the Great Basin
Natural and anthropogenic boundaries have been shown to affect population dynamics and population structure for many species with movement patterns at the landscape level. Understanding population boundaries and movement rates in the field for species that are cryptic and occur at low densities is often extremely difficult and logistically prohibitive; however genetic techniques may offer insights that have previously been unattainable. We analyzed thirteen microsatellite loci for 739 mountain lions (Puma concolor) using muscle tissue samples from individuals in the Great Basin throughout Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range to test the hypothesis that heterogeneous hunting pressure results in source-sink dynamics at the landscape scale. We used a combination of non-spatial and spatial model-based Bayesian clustering methods to identify genetic populations. We then used a recently developed Bayesian multilocus genotyping method to estimate asymmetrical rates of contemporary movement between those sub-populations and to identify source and sink populations. We identified 2 populations at the highest level of genetic structuring with a total of 5 subpopulations in the Great Basin of Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada range. Our results suggest that source-sink dynamics occur at landscape scales for wide-ranging species, such as mountain lions, and that source populations may be those that are under relatively less hunting pressure and that occupy refugia.
Mountain lions reduce movement, increase efficiency during the COVID-19 shutdown
<p class="CxSpFirst">Wildlife strongly alter behavior in response to human disturbance; however, fundamental questions remain regarding the influence of human infrastructure and activity on animal movement. The Covid-19 pandemic created a natural experiment providing an opportunity to evaluate wildlife movement during a period of greatly reduced human activity. Speculation in scientific reviews and the media suggested that wildlife might be increasing movement and colonizing urban landscapes during pandemic slowdowns. However, theory predicts that animals should move and use space as efficiently as possible, suggesting that movement might actually be reduced relative to decreased human activity.</p> <p class="CxSpMiddle">We quantified space use, movement, and resource-selection of 12 GPS-collared mountain lions (8 females, 4 males) occupying parklands in greater Los Angeles during the Spring 2020 California stay-at-home order when human activity was far below normal. We also tested the hypothesis that reduced traffic on Los Angeles area roadways increased permeability of these barriers to animal movement.</p> <p class="CxSpMiddle">Contrary to expectations that wildlife roamed more widely during pandemic shutdowns, resident mountain lions used smaller areas and moved shorter distances relative to their historical behavior in greater Los Angeles. They also relaxed avoidance of anthropogenic landscape features such as trails and development, which likely facilitated increased traveling efficiency. However, there was no detectable change in road-crossing, despite reduced traffic volume.</p> <p class="CxSpMiddle">Our results support the theoretical prediction that animals maximize movement efficiency and suggest that carnivores incur energetic costs while avoiding humans. While mountain lions may restrict movement at the landscape-level relative to barriers, they appear to increase distances moved at finer scales when avoiding human activity - highlighting the scale-dependent nature of animal responses to human disturbance.</p> <p>Avoiding humans can reduce direct mortality of large carnivores and is often suggested to be an important mechanism promoting coexistence in shared landscapes. However, energetic costs incurred by increased movement and space-use while avoiding human activity may have important consequences for population viability, predator-prey interactions, community structure, and human-wildlife conflict. Management providing sufficient wild prey and education regarding best practices for protection of domestic animals are important for conserving large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes.</p>
Mountain lions reduce movement, increase efficiency during the COVID-19 shutdown
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Identification of source-sink dynamics in mountain lions of the Great Basin
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Simulation-based validation of spatial capture-recapture models: a case study using mountain lions
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Minimum habitat thresholds required for conserving mountain lion genetic diversity
<p>Jointly considering the ecology (e.g., habitat use) and genetics (e.g., population genetic structure and diversity) of a species can increase understanding of current conservation status and inform future management practices. Previous analyses indicate that mountain lion (<i>Puma concolor</i>) populations in California are genetically structured and exhibit extreme variation in population genetic diversity. Although human development may have fragmented gene flow, we hypothesized the quantity and quality of remaining habitat available would affect the genetic viability of each population. Our results indicate that area of suitable habitat, determined via a resource selection function derived using 843,500 location fixes from 263 radio-collared mountain lions, is strongly and positively associated with population genetic diversity and viability metrics, particularly with effective population size. Our results suggested that contiguous habitat of ≥ 10,000 km<sup>2</sup> may be sufficient to alleviate the negative effects of genetic drift and inbreeding, allowing mountain lion populations to maintain suitable effective population sizes. Areas occupied by five of the nine geographic–genetic mountain lion populations in California fell below this habitat threshold, and two (Santa Monica Area and Santa Ana) of those five populations lack connectivity to nearby populations. Enhancing ecological conditions by protection of greater areas of suitable habitat and facilitating positive evolutionary processes by increasing connectivity (e.g., road crossing structures) might promote persistence of small or isolated populations. The conservation status of suitable habitat also appeared to influence genetic diversity of populations. Thus, our results demonstrate that both the area and status (i.e., protected or unprotected) of suitable habitat influence the genetic viability of mountain lion populations.</p>
Minimum habitat thresholds required for conserving mountain lion genetic diversity
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Cluster investigation results from model-predicted mountain lion feeding sites and non-predicted sites in southwest Wyoming
<p class="MsoNormal">Global positioning system (GPS) receivers allow researchers to collect location data that provide information about fine-scale animal movements. For large carnivores, these data are routinely processed to identify clusters of GPS locations which are investigated to validate feeding sites, estimate prey species composition, and model the likelihood of predation events based on characteristics of GPS location data within clusters. Although developing predation models entails a high level of field effort, researchers are apprehensive in applying system-specific models to other systems both spatially and temporally. Our objectives were to apply and compare multiple predation models to predict and identify feeding events outside of the geographic areas where models were developed. Using our multi-model approach, we identified feeding sites and estimated kill rates and prey composition of mountain lions (<em>Puma concolor</em>) in southwest Wyoming, USA from 2017 to 2019. Our approach increased our field efficiency by reducing potential field site investigations by 63%. We provide results of estimated diet composition in our study area where mountain lion prey included relatively high proportions of pronghorn (12.3%) and smaller mammals, particularly coyotes (7.6%). We also provide a comparison of the predation models developed across unique ecoregions of North America, and how they performed when applied to our area. We believe a similar approach could be adopted for other large carnivore populations where multiple models have been developed to characterize feeding events.</p>
Estimating Mountain Lion Habitat Connectivity to Guide Wildlife Conservation at The Nature Conservancy’s Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve; University of California Santa Barbara; 2021-2022.
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Cluster investigation results from model-predicted mountain lion feeding sites and non-predicted sites in southwest Wyoming
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.