Survival and mortality of pumas in a fragmented, urbanizing landscape

Vickers and colleagues followed GPS-collared pumas across the rapidly urbanizing landscape of southern California to quantify survival and identify the causes of death driving population decline. They found that human-caused mortality, vehicle collisions, depredation permits, illegal killing, and exposure to rodenticides and disease, dominated, and that survival was low in the most fragmented, road-dense areas. The study showed that roads and development imperil pumas not only by blocking movement but by directly killing them, and that the combination threatened population persistence. By rigorously linking telemetry-based survival analysis to specific human pressures, the work strengthened the case for wildlife crossings, road mitigation, and rodenticide regulation. It remains a key reference on the anthropogenic mortality that shapes the fate of pumas in human-dominated landscapes.