The decrease in Puma population causes great changes in our ecosystems. Pumas are close to extinct in South Carolina. There are only a few if the come here from the west which “holds most of the puma population in North America” (Panthera). There are many causes that band together to cause their extinction in South Carolina. This can affect our community by hurting our ecosystems. An ecosystem will go out of balance if a major predator is taken out of it, such as the puma. The decrease in puma population can greatly harm our communities.
Pumas are very diverse animals they are always different looking even if it is just a patch of color somewhere. Pumas go by many names such as mountain lion, cougar, and panther and of course puma. “Pumas have an elongated body with long hind legs” (), which make it easy for them to pounce, and a “small head with rounded ears”(The World Book Encyclopedia). Their weight can vary from 80 pounds to 200 pounds; they can get about three to seven feet long with the tail being a third of the length. The pumas tail gives it balance and helps them turn when in the air pouncing. The puma “does not roar they purr, the cry of a cougar sounds like a person screaming” (The World Book Encyclopedia). The puma is one of the rarely seen cats, they are very solitary animals, and they only come out when they have to.
Pumas are a very widespread species in the Western Hemisphere. There are three different geographical groupings: North America, Central America, and South America. Pumas have begun to expand throughout the western states in the United States. Pumas have large territories which they secure very territorially. “An average territory for a puma is around two hundred square miles” (Chadwi...
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...r ideas on not helping bring the pumas population back up in South Carolina and help them repopulate here to bring back the balance throughout the state.
Works Cited
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“Mountain Lion.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2009 Edition. 2009. Print.
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Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics. “Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation and Phologeograohy of Neotropic Pumas.” Mitochondrial DNA. 21 June 2013: 1 page. SCDiscuss.Web.20 Mar. 2014.
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The wolves beat the hunters in the recent, and highly contested, wolf and coyote derby in Salmon, ID. Wolves eluded the participants for the entire two-day hunt, but 21 coyotes were not so fortunate. The absence of any wolf kills, however, has not lessened the intensity of the controversy, nor the temperature of the debates. Wolves are a touchy subject, no matter the stance; as with most hotly contested issues, there is an abundance of information, but not all of it is correct.
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contains mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), completely intact. Mitochondrial DNA is tougher than the DNA found in cell nuclei; it is also found in the cytoplasm of a fertilized egg and is passed only through maternal lineage. This makes it much easier for the team to study and makes testing more accurate. Paabo’s team, from Leipzig, Germany, used a method of amino acid content as a way of measuring extractible DNA from the bones. The amino acid method was a means for testing the DNA content in the fossils.... ...
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Zipkin, Elise F., Kraft, Clifford E., Cooch, Evan G., and Sullivan, Patrick J., “When Can Efforts to Control Nuisance and Invasive Species Backfire?,” Ecological Applications, Vol. 19, No. 6 (2009): 1585-1595, accessed October 11, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40346271.
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Jonsson, Patrik. "Open Season: Will Rebounding Wyoming Wolves Thrive without U.S. Protection." Christian Science Monitor 1 Sept. 2012: n. pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.
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Sikes, Roberts. and William L. Gannon. "Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the Use of Wild Mammals in Research." Journal of Mammalogy 92.1 (Feb. 2011): 235-253. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 5 Oct. 2011.
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