Climate and degrees of prey availability, the solitary individuals of each species display great flexibility of behavior. Their success in breeding and survival is based on land tenure-the maintenance of more or less exclusive access to prey within a defined home area. Generally, older resident cats which occupy distinct areas year after year have the greatest breeding success. Others, usually younger individuals, are not as successful because they fail to occupy areas in prime habitat permanently, unless a vacancy occurs or they settle in less favorable habitats. Of the many influences on the land-tenure system of cats, abundance, population stability and distribution and mobility of prey are especially important.
Abundant prey allows cats to survive on smaller areas at higher densities.
Finally, highly mobile prey may demand seasonal shifts of hunting areas. To adapt to all these factors requires a flexible land-tenure system. In the rugged mountains of northwestern North America, individual pumas shift between large summer ranges 41 to 80 sq miles for females and up to 113 sq miles for males and smaller winter ranges averaging 42 sq miles and 49 sq miles for females and males, respectively. Locations of seasonal ranges are determined by the immigration patterns of their main prey, Mule deer and elk. Winter snow at higher altitudes forces hoofed mammals, and consequently the pumas, from higher summer ranges into lower valleys, but pumas maintain approximately the same distance from each other in both their summer and winter ranges.