BRN 9-4 - Flipbook - Page 58
References
Used In The Previous Article
Book Review Published in the Natural
Resources Journal, Vol. 42, pp. 226-230.
Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an
Enduring Carnivore. By Kenneth A. Logan & Linda L.
Sweanor. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2001. Pp. 463.
$70.00 hardcover, $45.00 paper.
Ball, E. 1988. Indeh: An Apache Odyssey. University of
Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma.
Breternitz, C. D. and D. E. Doyel. 1983. A cultural overview
and management plan for the White Sands Missile Range.
Soil Systems, Inc., Phoenix, Arizona.
The authors' work launches a "ßag-ship" study for the
Hornocker Wildlife Institute and emerges as a landmark in
puma research and conservation, an epic journey in the
pursuit of knowledge of these illusive big cats. The ten-year
study from 1985 to 1995 explores the secret life of desert
pumas inhabiting the San Andres Mountains of New Mexico.
This Þrst long-term intensive study of pumas living in a
desert environment becomes the largest investigation ever
conducted on any single puma population. It encompasses
about 9,780 total person days of Þeld research, with capture
and release of 241 individual pumas. Tracking the big cats
year round by air and ground gives nearly 14,000
radiotelemetry locations, yet this is only a fraction of the
total effort and material presented in this monograph.
Eckles, J. 2013. Pocketful of Rockets: History and Stories
Behind White Sands Missile Range. Fiddlebike Partnership,
Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Eidenbach, P. L. 1989. The West That Was Forgotten:
Historic Ranches of the Northern San Andres Mountains,
White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Human Systems
Research, Inc., Project 8824
Eidenbach, P. L., and B. Morgan, editors. 1994. Homes on
the Range: Oral Recollections of Early Ranch Life on the U. S.
Army White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. White Sands
Missile Range Archeological Report No. 94-24.
The scope of this book serves three different audiences. It
targets the academic community as an absorbing scholarly
treatise. The story is told in twenty-one chapters under Þve
headings: (1) Setting the stage; (2) Puma life history
strategies and population dynamics; (3) Puma behavior and
social organization; (4) Puma-prey relationships; (5) Pumas
and people. The authors present ten years of detailed data
in nearly 100 combined Þgures, tables, and plates dispersed
throughout the sections along with analytical and statistical
methods. Review of scientiÞc literature includes information
on the large cats in general, the puma being the fourth
largest cat in the world, and compares methods of data
collection and analysis between this study and prior studies
of the puma and other large felids. The work explains and
tests various hypotheses concerning survival strategy and
reproductive strategy in relation to population structure and
dynamics, prey dynamics, innate puma behavior, habitat,
climate, and other aspects of its ecology. Many illustrative
photographs are given throughout the chapters. The overall
content and rigorous scholarship of the authors' work
advances scientiÞc knowledge of pumas well beyond that of
any previous studies.
Kottlowski, F. E., R. H. Flower, M. L. Thompson, and R. W.
Foster. 1956. Stratigraphic Studies of the San Andres
Mountains, New Mexico. New Mexico Bureau of Mines and
Mineral Research Memoir 1, Socorro, New Mexico.
Laumbach, K. W. 2001. Hembrillo: An Apache BattleÞeld of
the Victorio War. White Sands Missile Range Archaeological
Research Report No. 00-06, Project No. 334.
Logan, K. A., and L. L. Sweanor. 2001. Desert Puma:
Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring
Carnivore. Island Press, Washington, D. C.
Mack, G. H., F. E. Kottlowski, and W. R. Seager. 1998. ÒThe
stratigraphy of south-central New MexicoÓ, in Las Cruces
Country II, M. G. Mack, G. S. Austin, and J. M. Baker, editors.
New Mexico Geological Society 49th Field Conference,
Guidebook, Pages 135-154.
EditorÕs Additional References
Used Elsewhere in this Issue
Logan and Sweanor's research also serves another audience,
that of wildlife managers. The New Mexico Game
Commission, to its credit, initiated this long-term
investigation to provide scientiÞc information for Þeld
application. This study thus establishes basic biological and
ecological Þndings needed for management decisions to
sustain self perpetuating populations of pumas and their
prey, while at the same time balancing the needs of other
diverse and vested interests. These interests include but are
not limited to those of recreational puma hunting, big game
(deer) hunting, which may compete with the puma for the
prey base; interests of protecting endangered desert
bighorn sheep living in the San Andres Mountains; and the
interests of minimizing puma predation on livestock.
Always present is interest to protect humans and their
companion animals that may encroach on puma habitat.
Desert Puma provides a massive tome of information for the
wildlife manager, although some practical aspects of the
Black Range Naturalist, April 3, 2025, pp. 61-78 (General
Survey; Organ Mountains Colorado Chipmunk observations,
research, and natural history; and New Mexico Sky Islands
and the Pleistocene [including Lake Lucero Þndings]).
Black Range Naturalist, July 3, 2022, pp. 4-6 (Arizona
Cypress).
Boyce, Walter M. and Mara E. Weisenberger. ÒThe rise and
fall of psoroptic scabies in bighorn sheep in the San Andres
Mountains, New MexicoÓ. J Wildl Dis. 2005 Jul;41(3)
pp. 525-31.
Seager, William R. Geology of Organ Mountains and
southern San Andres Mountains, New Mexico. 1981.
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