RiparianRiparian Zone Retreat Zone Retreatand population studiesand population studies

Jeremiah Fritz,Jeremiah Fritz,

Honors Bio II,Honors Bio II,

Period 1.Period 1.

Niche of a Mountain Lion Puma concolor: Cougar, Mountain Lion, Puma

• Mountain Lions can live anywhere. The places they live range from swamps to the tops of mountains. They mostly live in woodlands

• There are many different species that a mountain lion can eat. Mountain lions are top predators. The things they eat range from deer, bobcat, squirrels, chipmunks. They will eat anything that they can catch.

• Mountain lions stalk their prey very quietly. When they get close enough to attack they leap and break the backs of there prey with a strong bite. After they kill their prey they will drag it to a safe spot and return at night to feast on the animal.

Factors which Affect Birth Rate of Assigned Animal

• It mates once it has its own territory. In the north it mates from December to march.

• Mountain lions mate every other year.

• The gestation period is 84 to 106 days.

• The litter can vary from 1-6 cubs a time, but there is normally around 4.

• When mountain lions are first born they can not protect themselves so the mother cares for them. They will care for them for about 40 days but the mother and the cubs stay together for about 26 months.

• It can happen at any time but It mainly happens from December to March.

Factors Which Affect the Death Rate of Assigned Animal

• The mountain lion is a top predator, other than other mountain lions and humans not many things kill mountain lions.

• They can live in the wild for 20 years and a little longer if in captivity.

• The most common parasite to mountain lions is trinchinella

• Over population is not necessarily bad for my animal. There is always prey for it to eat because they will eat almost anything. The only problem is if the population gets over populated then they start killing humans too.

Food Chain of Assigned Organism

Producer

Autotroph

Primary Consumer

Omnivore

Secondary Consumer

Carnivore

Tertiary Consumer

Omnivore

Food web of Assigned Organism

Draw and explain a possible food web for your researched animal. Include description of the trophic level(s) in which each organism is found.

Herbivore

Producer Omnivore

CarnivoreCarnivore

Producer

CarnivoreHerbivoreHerbivore

Omnivore

Producer

Population Sampling Techniques

• Mark and recapture and other prey ratio. Mark and recapture is were catch the species than mark it. Then they will recapture it to see the changes it has made. The other prey ratio would probably be the best for mountain lions because they are hard to catch and see. They can easily catch its prey and see how many of them are still around.

• They can use these techniques to see the population size because they can see when animals reproduce and see how little the prey ratio is.

Stream Quality Data & Analysis Stream Quality Data & Analysis

0

100

200

300

400

500

No. oforganisms

Class IClass IIClass III

• According to this graph this stream has excellent quality. There are very little organisms that live in poor quality found. The number of organisms living in good quality is way larger than any other quality.

• The number in each classes represents different types of quality because these organisms can only live in certain places.

• These conditions reflect my researched organism because my organism needs to drink water from the stream and if its bad quality some of the prey it eats it won’t be alive.

• There would be a very low population of my species because it consumes food from the water and then those species wouldn’t be alive.

Water Testing Data & AnalysisWater Testing Data & Analysis• In certain places you want

different readings of these things. The stream condition was very good so animals could live. They made it this way so the run off would be in the mine pool and the sewage is expected to be these levels.

• The ideal range for nitrate and phosphate is 0. The ideal range for pH is 6.5-7.5 and the ideal oxygen level is 6-10ppm.

• It would survive close to the stream because the stream quality is excellent. If it was close to the mine or sewage, there would be little existents of my species.

• The temperature of the water was 55 and the turbidity for all of them was very clear.

020406080

100120140160180200

Nitrate

Oxygen

pH Phosphates

StreamMarshMine

Soil Testing & AnalysisSoil Testing & Analysis

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

pH Potash

Phosphorus

Nitrogen

Riparian

School Site

• These four things are very important for the soil. Plants need all of these different chemicals to grow. This means if the soil is in prime condition the plants will also be in prime condition.

• The ideal range for 6.5 and you want medium levels for the rest of them.

• When chemical levels are out of there ideal range, it can destroy that area of life. If the levels are off certain plants wont grow and the animals that consume these plants will die or move out of the area.

Positive and Negative Factors• The current waters would affect my organism in many different ways. The stream level is perfect for my organism and it will flourish in that setting. If my organism tried to live in the marsh area or the abandon mine it would struggle.

•The soil conditions affect my organism in many ways. If the soil is bad and the plants don’t grow the food will leave the area for my organism since it eats herbivores and omnivores.

• There are many different ways that the conditions can be affected. There are a bunch of mines in this area which leave acidic run off and can damage riparian zones.

Conclusion

• One thing I learned about the environment through this project was that Nitrogen and phosphorus were good for the soil but not the water. I figured the things that were good for both would run hand in hand.

• One thing I found interesting was how good the powder mill stream was. We found tons of micro organisms that indicated very health stream life.

•If I had to choose an environment subject I would probably choose AMD. I think it is very interesting and I would like to take a longer look on ways they control it.

Works CitedWebsitesPuma ConcolarAnimal Diversity Webhttp://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Puma_concolor.html2003

Online EncyclopediasMountain LionEncyclopedia Americana http://go.grolier.com/2009

Periodicals Barbano, FranMountain lions: Facts and FallaciesCarefree EnterpriseJune 2000Page 6-9