Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

Nutritional Ecol ogy of Mountain Lions 95

just a few locations per day. To deal with these potential issues, we deci ded to increase
the number of locations per day collected by the GPS collars, because initial work in-
dicated that we might be expending considerable time visiting sites where lions were
just loafing rather than sites where actual “kills” or “feeding” on kills were in pro gress
(Knopff et al. 2009; Smith 2014).
Most studies of mountain lion feeding habits in western states have found that up
to 80% of the diet was composed of deer (Spalding and Lesoski 1971; Toweill and Mes-
low 1977; Ackerman, Lindzey, and Hemker 1984), and because these studies have
been conducted in areas where mule deer are the common species (Logan and Sweaner
2001), most if not all of the diet is that species of deer (Robinette, Gashwiler, and Mor-
ris 1959). This was the case in the North Dakota Badlands (Wilckens et al. 2016). The
Black Hills, on the other hand, house deer populations dominated by white- tailed deer;
the ratio of the two species is about 4:1. Also, when there are two species of deer
occupying the same area, it can be difficult to determine which species was actually
consumed at kill or feeding sites, depending on the carcass condition during data col-
lection. Therefore, when Smith (2014) compiled the data in table 6.7, they were pre-
sented as “deer,” but the category was mostly white- tailed deer. These data were
collected during a period when the lion population had been reduced by harvest and
the number of nonharvest carcasses had declined from previous years, when the pop-
ulation was believed to be saturated. In comparison to previous periods, diet diversity
had increased, but certain dietary items, namely porcupine, had decreased, and kill-
ing of this species was mostly associated with subadult lions instead of all classes

Table 6.7. Seasonal frequency of prey items ( %) found for mountain lions in the Black Hills

Prey type

Adult F Adult M Subadult

Summer

(n = 548)

Winter

(n = 462)

Summer

(n = 101)

Winter

(n = 108)

Summer

(n = 158)

Winter

(n = 129)

BH sheep 0.18 0.87 0.99 0.93 1.27 0.00
Bison 0.00 0.00 0.99 0.93 0.00 0.00
Coyote 0.55 1. 74 0.00 1.85 0.63 2.33
Deer 86.68 85.90 72.28 64.81 7 7. 2 2 88.37
Dom. 1.10 1.08 1.98 8.33 2.53 0.78
Elk 4.20 3.04 18.81 19.44 1.90 2.33
Lion 0.18 0.00 1.98 0.93 0.00 0.00
Marmot 0.91 0.00 0.00 0.93 2.53 0.00
Misc. 0.00 1.08 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.78
Porcup. 0.18 0.22 0.00 0.00 3.80 0.00
Tur ke y 3.28 2.60 0.00 0.93 6.33 4.65
Unkn. 0.73 0.87 2.97 0.00 0.63 0.78
Other 2.01 2.82 0.00 0.93 3.16 0.00
Scav. 7. 3 0 23.43 18.81 38.89 10.13 2 7. 1 3

Source: Smith 2014.