Science is the foundation of effective conservation. By studying mountain lions, their habitats, and the ecosystems they help sustain, we build the knowledge needed to guide policy, improve coexistence, and protect the landscapes all life depends on.
Mountain lions are more than wildlife. They are key drivers of ecosystem health, influencing everything from prey behavior to biodiversity and habitat resilience.
Understanding these relationships is essential to protecting both mountain lions and the landscapes they shape.
Science helps us move beyond assumptions, revealing how ecosystems function and where conservation efforts can have the greatest impact.
Understanding the species itself.
Protecting movement across landscapes.
Looking beyond a single species.
Understanding coexistence.
Research into behavior, movement, reproduction, survival, and population dynamics helps us better understand what mountain lions need to thrive in the wild.
Mountain lions require large, connected habitats. Science helps identify critical wildlife corridors and informs efforts to reduce habitat fragmentation.
Mountain lions influence the health of entire ecosystems through their relationships with prey, vegetation, biodiversity, and landscape resilience.
Research helps identify the causes of conflict and the strategies that allow people and mountain lions to share landscapes more successfully.
Wildlife decisions are sometimes made with incomplete population information, untested assumptions, or pressure to produce an immediate political result. For mountain lions, those decisions can have lasting consequences – particularly for small, isolated, or already-declining populations.
MLF works to ensure that decisions affecting lions are transparent, evidence-based, and responsive to new information before irreversible harm occurs.
Research
↓
Understanding
↓
Policy & Coexistence
↓
Protection
The Mountain Lion Foundation helps translate scientific understanding into practical conservation solutions – informing policy, strengthening coexistence, and protecting the landscapes mountain lions need to thrive.
A newly disclosed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memo could substantially change how one of the nation’s most important wildlife protection laws is enforced. According to reporting by The New York Times, in a September 16 article, a September 14 internal memo signed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director
What science reveals about the interconnected nature of healthy ecosystems.
Science reveals the interconnected relationships that sustain healthy ecosystems. Understanding those connections helps us protect not only mountain lions, but the landscapes they shape.
Scientists call it a trophic cascade. We call it The Lion Effect.
Your support helps advance science, strengthen coexistence, and protect the landscapes mountain lions help sustain.
