Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

Population Dynamics of Mountain Lions 59

Based on our capture of 14 subadult male and 10 subadult female mountain lions,
dispersal averaged 275 km (13–1067 km) for males and 48 km (12–99 km) for females
(Thompson and Jenks 2005, 2010). These estimates do not include the Connecticut
mountain lion that dispersed from 2,450 to more than 2,700 km (1,531 to more than
1,687 miles) (Hawley et al. 2016; fig. 4.12). All of the subadult males and 50% of the
subadult females dispersed from their natal range (although, because of mortality, not
all males left the Black Hills). We attributed the rather high dispersal rate of females
to the saturated condition of the population, whereas the high dispersal rate of males
was similar to findings in other studies of this be hav ior in mountain lions.
Despite the prob lems associated with using conventional VHF radio technology in
documenting dispersal of mountain lions, we were successful, and along with the
straight- line distances traveled, the data collected allowed calculation of daily rates
of movement as an index to how fast mountain lions traveled across the landscape. For
example, for four subadult males, the time between locations ranged from 7 to 267
days, while the distance traveled ranged from 76 km to 1,067 km. Our rough estimate
of daily rates of travel averaged 8 km/day (5 miles/day) and ranged from 4 to 13 km
per day (2.5 to 8 miles per day) ( table 4.3). These findings were minimum values

figure 4.12. Approximate travel of a mountain lion from the Black Hills to Connecticut,
where the animal was killed by a vehicle. Numbers represent locations were DNA
evidence was collected or the animal was documented via camera; number 10 is the
location where the mountain lion died. Hawley et al. 2016.