Nice illustration of residual/incipient warning colouration on inner foreleg of Puma concolor

@marionholmes

In previous Posts (see https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/55108-the-forearm-flag-of-felids-as-a-retrievable-ancestral-feature-depending-on-the-local-predatory-regime# and https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/milewski/54854-forearm-flags-and-caudal-flags-in-lynx-like-felids#), I described a forearm flag in Felidae.

In particular, I showed that

• various spp. of felids have various degrees of development of a dark bar on the inner surface of the foreleg;
• this feature, where particularly prominent, seems to function as warning colouration, displayed at close quarters in confrontation with larger-bodied carnivores; and
• the genotypic basis for this dark bar remains in several clades of felids, allowing for renewed phenological expression in relatively rapid adaptation to increased intensity of the predatory regime.

In Puma concolor, all spotting and striping has been reduced to a remarkable degree in adults. There is, in some individuals, and possibly only in certain subspecies, a faint representation of the pattern described above.

Puma concolor is not only plain on the body and legs; it also has remarkably subdued colouration on the tip of the tail and on the backs of the ears. Therefore, it is noteworthy that any noticeable pattern can be found on the inner foreleg (and not on the inner hindleg), even if this is not nearly as vivid as in the Kalahari subspecies of the African wild cat (Felis libyca griselda).
 
Perhaps the best illustration of this is in one of the three photos in (Puma concolor: http://www.glwelchphoto.com/Mountain-Lions/i-mgX56nr/A). 
 
The individual is adolescent, so it seems likely that the band on the inner foreleg will fade somewhat in adulthood. However, the photo does hint at how warning colouration on the inner foreleg in felids functions as part of swiping in self-defence with the foreclaws.
 
Because this quasi-aposematic pattern is so reduced in the genus Puma (including the jaguarundi), there are various possible interpretations for its faint presence in P. concolor.

Either the pattern is incipient or it is residual. My guess would be the latter.

If I am right, then this hints at a possible reconstruction of colouration in the ancestors of the modern P. concolor.

In the Pleistocene, P. concolor probably had to contend with a community of large-bodied predators, more or less throughout its vast range from the boreal zone down to Patagonia.

If so, the warning colouration on the inner foreleg may have been more prominent than today, and present even in adults.

I suspect that, with the extinction of so many large Carnivora in the Americas, the pattern has been relaxed evolutionarily.

A hint of the hypothetical forearm flag of the puma in the Pleistocene can be seen in

Adults:
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/the-close-up-view-of-puma-walking-across-the-snow-royalty-free-image/1318930273?language=es
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOttcWeiYhY

Juveniles:
https://www.everypixel.com/q/lion-running?image_id=1167094119295337064
https://www.everypixel.com/image-1461777232837904689

Posted on August 27, 2022 12:53 AM by milewski