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A Wild Puma Was Caught on Camera Hunting in an Unexpected Place
Yahoo • • science
Key Points:
- A wild puma was captured on camera traps climbing 33 meters (108 feet) high into the rainforest canopy in French Guiana, a height rarely documented for such large cats.
- The puma was observed stalking kinkajous, nocturnal arboreal mammals, suggesting that these typically ground-dwelling predators may hunt prey in the treetops.
- This rare interaction was recorded during a decade-long camera trap study primarily aimed at monitoring fruit-eating mammals and birds, highlighting an unexpected predator-prey dynamic in the canopy.
- While most big cats prefer ground hunting due to their build, this evidence challenges assumptions about the safety of canopy-dwelling animals from large predators.
- The findings are detailed in a preprint paper by the National Museum of Natural History in France and have yet to undergo peer review.
