Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

116 Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

lion population in the Black Hills was healthy and diverse but likely had declined as a
result of harvest. The population was benefiting from the immigration of individuals
from western, long- established populations and even gained potential ge ne tic diversity
from individuals that had entered the Black Hills from the North Dakota Badlands. As
a system of mountain lion movement, with the Black Hills representing a source of new
individuals via colonizers that would disperse from the region mainly to the north and
west but also to the east and south, the ge ne tic diversity supported population and
system viability. We used these comparative data to support our indices of population
size and pattern of population change obtained through our mark- recapture analyses.
These analyses, when combined with our estimates of numbers of effective breeders,
suggest that, provided that the proportion of effective breeding individuals is close to
or above 50% of the population (fig. 7.5), sufficient reproduction in conjunction with
immigration can maintain ge ne tic integrity of the mountain lion population in the
Black Hills.
Our results on the ge ne tics of mountain lions in the Black Hills also could be of in-
terest relative to the pres ent situation affecting the Florida panther. The size of the
Black Hills is comparable to that of the area encompassing the habitat of the panther in
southern Florida. However, population isolation in southern Florida has affected the
ge ne tic diversity of the panther, whereas in the Black Hills, even semi- isolation has al-
lowed sufficient movement of genes into the population through immigration to

300

250

200

150

Po

pulation siz

e

100

50

0

2000 2002 2004 2006

Year

2008 2010 2012 2014

% Breeders

Circle > 50%

Square < 50%

figure 7.5. Change in percentage of effective breeders (NB) with population size of
mountain lions in the Black Hills. Effective breeders were above 50% during periods
of low and moderate population size. Mountain lions during all three periods showed
high allelic diversity and heterozygosity. Juarez et al. 2016.