Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope, August 20, 2026

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Feel free to skip this action for state leaders in Hawaii, where pumas are not native.

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A fascinating new study from Washington state recently discovered that puma presence actively protects human drivers by sharply reducing the incidence of deer/car collisions. Five years of data from 503 camera trap sites and 59 GPS-collared pumas found that puma presence corresponded with a 67% decrease in the likelihood of a deer colliding with a vehicle and a 76% decline in the overall number of car wrecks over a five-year period! When the predators are around, deer change their behavior to avoid exposed areas like roads. Deer collisions are a major cause of U.S. car crashes, and pumas help restore ecological balance and road safety — working for free.

Pumas were historically found in every U.S. state except Hawaii, and after decades of over-hunting they’ve recently begun returning to much of their historic range. The return of the puma directly benefits humans along the way: pumas often specialize in hunting deer, and white-tailed deer have lately become highly overpopulated in much of the United States due to lack of predators. In addition to helping prevent car crashes, there’s also abundant ongoing research strongly suggesting that pumas’ control of deer populations can help reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease (aka “zombie deer disease”) and even tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease in humans. Tick-borne diseases are a fast-increasing risk across much of the United States, as higher temperatures increase the survival and active periods of many tick species. Almost half a million Americans are treated for Lyme disease each year.

There’s still a lot of room left for pumas to expand, within states where they currently live and beyond! A new 2023 study identified 17 landscapes in the Eastern United States that are ideally suitable as once and future puma habitat, from Maine to Wisconsin!

In March 2026, a trail camera near Voyageurs National Park recorded a female puma with three kittens, marking the first time in over 100 years that the species has bred in Minnesota!

A key factor blocking the return of the puma is un-crossable highways, which both block off new territories and are a major cause of death in established puma populations. In the 21st century, hundreds of individual “pioneer” pumas have dispersed into new territories east of the Rocky Mountains, but most of them have died before establishing new breeding populations, often from being hit by cars or trucks. One young male cougar traveled for 18 months from South Dakota to Connecticut before being hit by a car in 2011.

Now, wildlife crossing overpasses and underpasses are emerging as a solution to restore habitat connectivity and reduce traffic collisions across America. A 2022 study in Washington state calculated that 13 wildlife crossings in the area had a favorable cost-benefit analysis due to preventing medical, car repair, and cleanup costs, with each wildlife crossing saving an estimated $235,000 to $443,000 per year thanks to avoided collisions! And that doesn’t even count the potential “force multiplier” effect of allowing pumas to resettle more parts of their old range. State leaders should support wildlife crossing projects as a win-win for human safety and wildlife population health.

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Your Dose of Climate Hope is written by Sam Matey-Coste for Climate Action Now.