Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Monitoring The Spatial Ecology Of Puma Concolor Along A Wildland-Urban Gradient, Natalie D'Souza, Tim Cromwell

Student Research Symposium

The wildland-urban gradient is a hotspot for human-wildlife conflict, as resources and land-use are often shared between the two. As humans encroach more into wildlife lands, humans become ecological players in urban, as well as wildland, ecosystems. Expanding into wildlife habitat creates gradients of human disturbance that can negatively alter ecosystem dynamics. Many species must adapt to human-dominated environments, or else face extinction. Cache Valley, Utah, has a growing wildland-urban interface that borders the southern Bear River Range, an extension of the Wasatch Front, and is mostly contained within Cache National Forest. Cache County is the sixth-fastest growing county in …