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Navigating Coexistence: Mountain Lion Behavior, Outdoor Recreation, and the Challenges of Managing Multiuse Landscapes in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains
John Morgan from the UCSC Environmental Studies Department
In Person Location: ISB 221
As outdoor recreation grows in popularity, its effects on wildlife remain poorly understood. This dissertation examines how outdoor recreational activity shapes the behavior of mountain lions (Puma concolor) in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains – a fragmented landscape where large carnivores persist alongside urban and suburban human communities. Using high-resolution GPS data from collared mountain lions, crowd-sourced human activity data from Strava, and long-term camera trap surveys, I investigate the mechanisms and consequences of human-carnivore interactions across multiple ecological and social scales. Specifically, I ask how outdoor recreation affects mountain lion habitat selection, movement behavior, and population abundance; whether behavioral modification strategies can reduce human-carnivore conflict; and how land managers balance the competing goals of recreation access and wildlife conservation. Together, this work contributes to a mechanistic understanding of recreation ecology and offers evidence-based guidance for managing multiuse landscapes that support both people and wildlife.