Research overview: drought, deer condition, and puma population responses

In western North America, puma populations track deer and other ungulate prey whose abundance and condition fluctuate with drought. This overview surveys how dry years reduce forage, lower prey recruitment and survival, and alter prey distribution, and how pumas respond through shifts in movement, kill rates, and reproduction. It reviews evidence linking drought-driven prey dynamics to changes in puma demography and human-puma conflict as prey becomes scarce. The synthesis frames drought as a climate driver mediated through prey, explaining why understanding puma futures under a more arid, variable climate requires tracking the ungulate base, and why extreme dry periods can stress predator populations even where habitat cover remains intact.