Kanan road exit on the 101 freeway in los angeles, the next
Exit up the freeway from blogger rick’s home……….yea!
Wildlife underpasses and culverts needed across the 101 for the cougar genepool to spread and grow!
Three Mountains Lion Kittens Born in Santa Monica Mountains
• Two Females and One Male Are Expected to Enhance Local Cougar Gene Pool
BY ANNE SOBLE
Three mountain lion kittens were born last month in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is the second documented litter of mountain lion kittens since the ones born here in the summer of 2004.
The kittens—two females and a male—were discovered on May 26 by National Park Service researchers in parkland adjacent to the Kanan Road and Mulholland Highway area.
All documented cougars are designated by the letter P, which stands for puma, another name for mountain lion or cougar and the specie’s genus (Puma concolor), and a number that represents its order in the research project.
Thus, the new female kittens are P17 and P19, and their brother is P18.
In some parts of the United States, cougar young and the young of most larger carnivores are called cubs. The NPS in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area uses the research term kitten.
According to this week’s formal birth announcement, NPS researchers “intensively monitored P13, the kitten’s mother, throughout the spring, after GPS tracking revealed that she and P12, a collared male, spent several days in proximity in late January.”
Adult cougars rarely interact with each other except to mate and clash over territory. In fact, the father of the 2004 litter killed its mother in 2005.
Each kitten has been implanted with a tracking device that will allow researchers to follow its movement. NPS indicated, “This is the first urban mountain lion study that has had the opportunity to track mountain lion kittens from such a young age.”
The wildlife researchers will monitor the littermates to see if the male will move to new habitat when he matures, and whether the females will have litters in two years.
The litter of kittens is also significant because P12, the unconfirmed father of the kittens, is genetically different from other mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains.
P12 made the only documented mountain lion crossing across Highway 101 in spring of 2009 to enter the Santa Monicas, and it is thought that he might be from farther away, meaning a new infusion into the gene pool.
Life will not necessarily be easy for the triplets. Although the habitat in the Santa Monica Mountains is ideal for the species, increased development and lack of crossing locations to other wildland areas to the north and west can lead to conflict over territory and inbreeding.
In another major cougar development, a new adult cat, P16, was added to the research study in May. P16 lives in the Santa Susana Mountains.
Research in the Santa Monica Mountains indicates that male mountain lions frequently travel the entire length and breadth of the mountain range from the I-405 at the east end of the SMMNRA, to Camarillo to the west, and from the Pacific Ocean and Malibu to the south to the 101 freeway to the north, which acts as an almost impenetrable barrier farther north.
Artificial impediments created by humans and their development mean SMMNRA cougars rarely leave the area’s confines.
The National Park Service mountain lion study started eight years ago with the initial collaring of P1.
Since then, researchers have tracked 19 mountain lions. Currently, the study monitors six working GPS collars on adult cougars, as well as tracks the new kittens that are monitored by vehicle, or on foot, using VHF transmitters.
This is the largest number of mountain lions ever followed at one point in time during the study.
The research data has spurred proposals to establish a safe and effective wildlife crossing point under Highway 101 in the wildlife corridor east of Kanan Road to help guarantee gene pool health.
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