The mountain lion, also known as the puma and cougar, faces an increasingly uncertain future in California. The animals are being forced to adjust to freeways, residential and commercial development, and other obstacles to adequate home ranges. Such barriers diminish their ability to reproduce at healthy levels and maintain genetic diversity within the species. As a keystone species, the puma has tremendous impact on all wildlife species that share their habitat.

As part of our puma education and outreach, Felidae is developing a revolutionary model program that combines wildlife science, education, technology, and community participation with conservation planning. The program partners with schools in Santa Cruz and Marin Counties, California, and their student populations to bring greater awareness to both the students and the larger public. Santa Cruz and Marin Counties will serve as benchmarks for other counties and regions by demonstrating that humans and pumas can co-exist with minimal conflict.

K-12 school children selected for this project will have the opportunity to learn about the role of felid species in local ecosystems. Learning tools available online will include chat boards, Cat Aware blogs, video clips, lesson plans, field work notebooks maintained by the core working group, and tracking information from the study in Marin County.

Students will learn data collection techniques, mapping and field observation, and they will incorporate this learning into science and humanities classes in school. Global Positioning Satellite collars will be placed on up to 20 mountain lions and bobcats to track the animals’ movements for 5 years, giving researchers and state agencies a clearer picture of how pumas and bobcats respond to human population growth and encroachment, increasingly fragmented habitat, and higher possibilities of human-puma conflict. We believe these fresh insights will encourage the evolution of novel, conservation-minded communities, where human and wildlife species co-exist, and conflict is minimal.

Felidae is building support for the project from foundations and the corporate sector, and works closely with other partners including the University of California at Santa Cruz, California Department of Fish and Game, and California Sate Parks. CAT Aware is a progressive model that strives to bridge the existing gaps between wildlife science, conservation and community awareness and participation.