Mountain lion social organization in the Idaho Primitive Area

This landmark monograph reported one of the first multi-year radio-telemetry studies of cougars, conducted in the rugged Idaho Primitive Area. By collaring and following individual lions, the team documented how resident adults maintained largely exclusive ranges, how transients moved through, and how a land-tenure system regulated population density without overt territorial fighting. The study introduced the influential idea that mountain lion spacing is organized through mutual avoidance and prior-residency rights rather than constant aggression. It also established baselines for home-range size, movement, and dispersal that shaped cougar management for decades. Its importance lies in showing that careful tracking of marked individuals could reveal the hidden social structure of a famously solitary, cryptic carnivore.