Puma densities - are they reliable?

Now published online in Wildlife Biology, is a paper on density of pumas in Patagonia. Kurt A. Rinehart, L. Mark Elbroch and Heiko U. Wittmer are the authors to "Common biases in density estimation based on home range overlap with reference to pumas in Patagonia." 

Mark Elbroch says: "We used a simulation approach to diagnose potential biases in published densities of pumas Puma concolor from Patagonia, and our modeling results suggested that densities in southernmost Patagonia may not have been as high as reported. Our findings hold immediate conservation value, for these previously reported densities may have been used to justify the high exploitation of pumas that occurs throughout Patagonia."

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