As mountain lion activity grew over nine years in a suburban Bay Area nature preserve, deer and other animals shifted their behavior — and woody plants became measurably denser — suggesting large predators can still trigger ecological chain reactions even in landscapes next to neighborhoods.
1
Statistical analysis confirmed that increasing puma activity over 9 years drove measurable changes in prey (deer, brush rabbits) and mesopredator (bobcat, coyote, grey fox) activity levels in a suburban preserve.
2
Prey and mesopredators decreased nocturnal behavior across the study period, suggesting they shifted their schedules to avoid temporal overlap with pumas.
3
Woody plant density increased across three vegetation surveys spanning 17 years in parallel with rising puma activity, providing preliminary evidence of a predator-driven trophic cascade.
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