# Identification of pumas (Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)) through faeces: a comparison between morphological and molecular methods

> How sure can you be that a cat scat came from a puma? In Brazil’s cerrado, researchers checked 20 scats collected as puma scats using both DNA and the scale patterns of swallowed guard hairs, and found two were from ocelots. The two methods agreed every time both worked, and the authors suggest using them together.

Summary by Kersey Lawrence, Original Wisdom. Updated 9 November 2026. Page: https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2007-miotto-ciocheti-identification-pumas-puma-concolor/

## Citation and access

- **Authors:** R.A. Miotto, G. Ciocheti, F.P. Rodrigues and P.M. Galetti Jr.
- **Year published:** 2007
- **Journal or source:** Brazilian Journal of Biology
- **Full citation:** Miotto, R.A., Ciocheti, G., Rodrigues, F.P. and Galetti Jr., P.M. 2007. Identification of pumas (Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)) through faeces: a comparison between morphological and molecular methods. Brazilian Journal of Biology 67(4, Suppl.): 963–965.
- **DOI:** 10.1590/s1519-69842007000500023
- **Access status:** Open access (CC BY-NC 4.0)
- **PDF:** https://www.originalwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/2007_Miotto_and_Ciocheti_etal_identification-of-pumas-through-faeces-a-comparison-between-morphological-and-molecular-methods.pdf

## Tags

- **Species:** Mammals > Mountain lion; Mammals > Ocelot
- **Region:** South America > Brazil
- **Tracking:** Hair; Scat; Tracking; Tracks and signs identification
- **Methods and technology:** Bootstrapping; DNA; Observer reliability
- **Data type:** New field data
- **Observer qualification:** Not reported
- **Discipline:** Wildlife tracking
- **Year published:** 2007

## Detailed keywords

- **Species:** Studied: puma (Puma concolor), called mountain lion on the website. Identified among the scats: ocelot (Leopardus pardalis). Reference blood samples also came from jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi), present in the study areas; the crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous) was used only as a genetic outgroup (a distant comparison sequence).
- **Location and habitat:** Two protected cerrado (Brazilian savanna) areas in southeastern Brazil: Vassununga State Park (about 21° 41’ S, 47° 34’ W) and Jataí Ecological Station (given in the paper as about 21° 51’ S, 47° 82’ W; 82 minutes is not a possible value, so the longitude contains a typo).
- **Topics:** scat identification; misidentification of puma and ocelot scats; faecal DNA (molecular scatology); guard hair microstructure (cuticle scale patterns) from hairs swallowed while grooming; reference hair collections; non-invasive sampling of elusive carnivores; combining methods for more reliable identification. Inconsistency in the paper: the methods name the control blood samples as coming from “pumas (Puma concolor and Puma yagouaroundi)”, although Puma yagouaroundi is the jaguarundi, not a puma.
- **Statistics or models:** Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of a 146 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene; sequences compared with GenBank references; neighbor-joining tree with bootstrap values from 1,000 randomizations. No other statistics.
- **Data type:** New field data: 32 scats collected October 2004 to August 2005, of which 20 were analysed.

## Synopsis

### 1. What they did

Pumas live at low densities and are hard to watch, so researchers often rely on their scats. Scats are usually identified in the field by where they lie, their size, their smell and any tracks nearby, but these clues can be subjective or inconsistent. Puma and ocelot scats can be similar in size, which makes the two easy to confuse.

From October 2004 to August 2005, the researchers collected 32 scats thought to be from pumas in two protected cerrado (savanna) areas in southeastern Brazil. Twelve had been dissolved by rain or broken down by insects, so 20 were analysed. Each scat was identified in two ways, by two researchers working independently so that neither knew the other’s results:

- Faecal DNA. A short piece of mitochondrial DNA (from the cytochrome b gene) was copied by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and compared with reference sequences of pumas and other wild cats in the region. Blood from pumas, jaguarundis and ocelots served as controls.

- Guard hairs in the scat. Cats swallow their own hair while grooming. The researchers made impressions of the scale pattern on the surface of these hairs and compared them with a reference collection.

### 2. What they found

- DNA worked for 12 of the 20 scats: 10 were from pumas and 2 from ocelots.

- For those 12 scats, the guard hair analysis gave the same answers as the DNA.

- The other 8 scats gave no DNA result and were identified by their guard hairs alone; all 8 were from pumas.

- Puma hairs showed a transversally waved scale pattern (scales with wavy edges running across the hair). Ocelot hairs showed an intermediate petal pattern, with overlapping, wider scales.

### 3. What they concluded

- Finding two ocelot scats among those thought to be from pumas shows that field experience alone is not enough to tell the two apart, and that other methods are needed to help.

- Guard hair microstructure is a useful tool for identifying scats. Simply looking at hair colour and size could give wrong answers, because fur varies a lot with region and season.

- DNA identification is practical when guard hairs are hard to identify, when there are few of them, or when there is no good reference collection. It is most useful when individual animals need to be identified.

- DNA and guard hair analyses both work, and used together may give more accurate identification of scats collected in the field.

### 4. How tracking was or was not used

The study rests on tracks and signs identification of scats. The scats were collected as presumed puma scats, and the paper describes the usual field clues (where the scat was left, size, odour and associated tracks) and the shape of cat scats (segmented, with tapered ends, and a characteristic smell). It does not say which clues the collectors actually used for each scat. No trailing is reported.

### 5. Tracker or observer certification

Not reported. The paper does not say who collected the scats or how experienced they were. This matters for the main finding: 2 of the 12 scats identified by DNA (2 of 20 overall) were from ocelots rather than pumas, and the authors put this down to the limits of field experience, without describing that experience.

### 6. Other technologies, skills or innovations

- Faecal DNA extracted with a commercial stool kit, frozen samples (stored at –22 °C without preservative), and PCR of a 146 base pair cytochrome b fragment with primers from Farrel et al. (2000).

- Hair cuticle impressions read under the microscope (photographs at 200 times magnification) and matched to a Brazilian reference collection (Quadros 2002).

- The two analyses were run blind to each other.

### 7. Implications for conservation (from the paper)

- Non-invasive methods such as scat analysis open new ways to study and monitor large, elusive carnivores, without the cost and possible harm of capturing them.

- Scat analysis can be used to monitor populations and their movements and to learn about diet, so correct identification of the species matters.

### 8. Implications for tracking (Original Wisdom's observations)

_These are Original Wisdom's observations, not the authors'._

- The study is small (20 scats) and does not report who identified the scats in the field or how, so it cannot say how often an experienced, tested tracker would confuse puma and ocelot scats. It does show that a scat’s size and shape alone can mislead where two cats of overlapping size share an area.

- Guard hairs swallowed during grooming are a sign inside the sign: a trained eye with a microscope and a reference collection can confirm a scat’s maker even when DNA fails, which it did for 8 of 20 scats here.

## Cite this summary

Lawrence, K. 2026. Summary of: Identification of pumas (Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771)) through faeces: a comparison between morphological and molecular methods (Miotto and Ciocheti et al., 2007). Original Wisdom, Tracking Literature. https://www.originalwisdom.com/tracking-literature/2007-miotto-ciocheti-identification-pumas-puma-concolor/