In this blog, Panthera Puma Director Dr. Mark Elbroch explores the differences between pumas in Patagonia and North America, and how the rugged terrain of Torres del Paine affects this species’ genetic diversity.
Not all but many pumas living in and adjacent Torres del Paine National Park in Chile look distinctive. Those of us who are only familiar with pumas in North America might go so far as to call them odd. Many Torres pumas have smaller eyes relative to their faces, narrower, squatter snouts, and longer than typical ears as compared to northern pumas. They sometimes lack the black stripes outlining their muzzles, and their coloration is generally grayer as well. Regardless of what you think about their appearance, they are generally very easy to identify while sifting among the copious images of pumas now flooding the internet.
Torres del Paine is without doubt the premier place in the world to visit to see and spend time with wild pumas. Every major network has visited the region in recent years to make puma films, and professional and amateur photographers flock to the area to capture that which is so difficult across most of the Americas. And yet, some people have speculated that Torres Pumas may have suffered inbreeding during the era of intense puma persecution, during which Torres del Paine National Park acted like an island protecting remaining pumas. Could the world’s most photographed pumas be unhealthy, and if so, what could we do to help them?
The Torres Puma population is certainly isolated from other puma populations in Patagonia. To the west lies impassable fjords, to the north the impassable southern ice field, and to the east Argentina where people are allowed to hunt 1 puma each week — and there still exists government bounties for puma skins. South of Torres del Paine National Park is mostly private ranches that have historically been hostile territory for pumas, but increasingly are becoming more sympathetic if not outright supportive of puma conservation. Based on these facts, Torres pumas may very well have been isolated from other puma populations for some time.
It just so happened that we had a freezer full of puma scats from which we extracted DNA to estimate puma abundance in the region — perhaps we could help answer this question.
The results of this inquiry were just published in an article titled “An Initial Genetic Assessment of the Emblematic Pumas of the Torres del Paine UNESCO Biosphere Reserve,” in the journal Diversity, and we highlight them here.
In the end, our results left us with as many questions as when we started. Our sample was very small — just 20 individuals, but based on our analyses, the population appears genetically healthy. We observed lots of cowlicks (see the accompanying image depicting a “cowlick”), which have been used as an indicator of inbreeding among Florida panthers. In South America, however, there are just more pumas with cowlicks, and so they might not be useful evidence of poor genetic health. Our results also suggested our sample was composed of a single population, which would support the idea that the population is isolated from other puma populations, but some results suggested that they may be composed of two populations. These results might be evidence that pumas are beginning to immigrate into Torres del Paine from elsewhere now that puma killing appears to have decreased in Argentina following the drop in wool prices and therefore wool production. So, we’ve continued to gather and analyze samples to learn more.
And here’s a bit of foreshadowing based on our current work. In collaboration with Molly Cassatt-Johnstone and Beth Shapiro of the Ancient DNA lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, we are indeed uncovering evidence of inbreeding, but not in every puma we sample. Slowly we gather more samples to build a more complete picture, and we are working in collaboration with others to expand the area from which we gather samples as well, to better assess whether pumas can travel between populations in southern Patagonia. If inbreeding is indeed an issue for our most iconic puma population, then the solution is providing them safe passage to move freely between nearby populations in central Chile and Argentina.
For now, however, rest easier and enjoy puma pictures from Patagonia, as the pumas there appear to be genetically robust.
Learn more about pumas and Panthera’s impact on the species.
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© Sebastian Kennerknecht
