Mountain Lions Are Keystone Species — and Need Cooperative Conservation

By Bryan Hamilton, acting Integrated Resource Management Program Manager. From The Midden (Great Basin National Park), Vol. 22, No. 1, Summer 2022.

A mountain lion caught on a wildlife camera. NPS.

Keystone predators

Mountain lions are keystone species. Through their effects on prey, they create "top-down" effects that regulate prey numbers and behavior, reduce overgrazing, invasive species and disease spread, and increase soil fertility and biodiversity. These predator-driven trophic cascades can restore and sustain healthy ecosystems.

A polarizing issue

• The rural–urban divide: lion conservation has wide support in cities and suburbs, but lion habitat in Nevada is mostly rural, on federal land. Rural communities who live alongside lions often see wildlife management very differently and may not support predator conservation.
• Parks in the middle: Great Basin National Park must keep its resources "unimpaired for future generations," and values apex predators — but most parks are too small to hold whole predator populations. Lions must leave the park, where conflicts can arise.
• The answer: cooperative conservation, the only effective approach for large animals that must be managed at landscape scale across boundaries. It recognizes that wildlife management is a human endeavor: without community support, dialogue and engagement, conservation fails — yet most agencies and biologists overlook social differences and human behavior.

The plan

The park has applied for Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act funding to put cooperative conservation into practice, using lion research as a tool for outreach:

• Collars: lions will be captured and fitted with satellite-linked GPS collars.
• Kill sites: tight clusters of locations often mean a lion is feeding; after it leaves, citizen scientists and school groups will visit the kill and record patterns of predation.
• Community: regular meetings in Baker and Ely; connecting urban students with landowners and livestock producers around the park; training in wildlife techniques.
• Science: the data will reveal lions' home ranges, numbers, diet and habitat use.

The aim: better predator management, healthier ecosystems, and human well-being, through research and community engagement together.

References

Beschta and Ripple (2009); Elbroch (2020), The Cougar Conundrum; Fraser and others (2015); Manfredo and others (2021); Rominger and others (2004).

Sources

Based on "Mountain Lions are Keystone Species," by Bryan Hamilton, The Midden, Great Basin National Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The original names the funding source "Southern Nevada Land Management Act."