The Santa Cruz Puma Project aims to understand the adaptations and effects of human population growth and terrestrial development on the area's puma/mountain lion population.
Ph.D. Candidate Yiwei Wang is a member of the Wilmer's Research Lab and researches pumas with the Puma Project. NBC Bay Area New's reporter Doug McConnell, a fixture in Bay Area environmental reporting, visited Yiwei and Research Biologist Yasaman Shakeri in the field. In this video report, Yiwei demonstrates how to pick up a radio transmitter signal from a puma in the mountains, the group visits one of the cameras used to monitor puma activity, and they discuss the research goals of the Puma Project and how the Bay Area's ecology supports these top-level predators.