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Opportunity Summary:

This grant opportunity, titled "Research Grants (Generic)" (Funding Opportunity Number F16AS00114), is a discretionary funding announcement from the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (DOI-FWS). The funding mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which typically means the Service expects to remain actively involved in the work rather than simply providing funds and receiving a final report. The project is set up as a collaboration specifically between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New Mexico State University, and it falls under the Natural Resources funding activity area (CFDA 15.650). Eligible applicants are limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, aligning with the university-based research focus described in the announcement.

The purpose of the project is to improve scientific understanding of how mountain lions use Chihuahuan Desert habitats and how management actions, especially water management, may influence their behavior and ecological impacts. The work has three main components. First, the project will establish baseline information on mountain lion space use and movement in desert environments, including estimates of home range size, movement rates, and habitat associations. In practice, this kind of objective is usually supported by field monitoring approaches that can quantify where animals go over time and how they select among habitat types across the landscape, producing foundational data that can be used for later comparisons and management decisions.

Second, the project will document mountain lion diet and predation patterns by cataloging prey types and predation. This objective is aimed at understanding what mountain lions are eating in the Chihuahuan Desert and how frequently predation events occur, which can be important for assessing ecological effects on prey populations and for anticipating potential conflicts where livestock or sensitive wildlife species may be present. A clear catalog of prey items and predation rates also helps interpret movement and habitat-use data, since predator behavior often reflects prey distribution, prey vulnerability, and landscape features that influence hunting success.

Third, the project will evaluate how managed water influences mountain lion behavior and predation ecology. Specifically, it will assess whether water provisioning affects home range sizes, movement rates, habitat associations, prey type, and predation rates. The announcement notes that this phase may involve manipulation of water provision, implying an experimental or quasi-experimental management approach where the availability or placement of water sources could be adjusted and mountain lion responses measured. This is a practical management question in arid landscapes, where artificial or managed water can reshape wildlife distribution and concentration, potentially altering predator-prey interactions and changing the risk of predation in certain areas.

The announcement anticipates a single award with an award ceiling of $80,000 and an expected number of awards of 1. The opportunity was created and posted on February 23, 2016, with an original and current closing date of February 29, 2016. Taken together, those details indicate a targeted, time-limited solicitation oriented around a specific collaborative research need rather than an open-ended, multi-award program.

The statutory authority for the program is tied to CFDA 15.650 and references several foundational conservation and wildlife laws. These include the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (as amended), the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (as amended), the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 (as amended), the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 (as amended), and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Collectively, these authorities support federal involvement in fish and wildlife research, coordination, habitat conservation, and the broader management framework that can include species and habitat considerations relevant to predators like mountain lions and the ecosystems they influence.

In summary, this cooperative agreement funding opportunity supports a focused research partnership designed to generate baseline ecological data on mountain lions in the Chihuahuan Desert, document their prey and predation patterns, and test how water management actions may change mountain lion movements, habitat use, and predation dynamics. The results are intended to inform wildlife and habitat management decisions in arid desert systems where water availability is a key lever that can affect both predator behavior and broader ecological outcomes.

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