Long-Distance Dispersal of a Male Puma in Patagonia

Pumas have the largest geographic range of any terrestrial mammal in the Americas. Despite this large distribution, pumas are a species of conservation concern and believed in decline across much of their range. Research in North America suggests that dispersal is critical in maintaining connectivity of increasingly fragmented puma populations. Puma dispersal maintains genetic diversity across the landscape and is essential in revitalizing small populations and recolonizing habitats in which local populations have become extinct (i.e., source-sink dynamics). Long distance dispersals by pumas across large tracts of unsuitable habitat have been well recorded in North America. Here we report on a long-distance dispersal event of a male Patagonian puma in South America as revealed by satellite and GPS telemetry.