As we know from the studies conducted on the ten Pumas that still call the Greater Los Angeles basin home, highways literally stop dead the genetic flow of the big cat, isolating populations with inbreeding maladies being the result.............Researchers from the University of California, Davis,collected DNA samples from more than 350 mountain lions throughout California and found that animals separated by little more than a highway have far less genetic material in common than they did just 80 years ago..................We need highway culverts created for the Pumas so that they can move back and forth across territories and invigorate neighboring populations with their genes,,,,,,,,,,,,Othervwise the fact that California has been enlightened enough to ban the hunting of these animals will be all for naught with physical and mental abnormalities the eventual outcome of this man made array of physical blockades and the loss of resilience for the "lions"

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/science/a-threat-is-seen-in-pumas-isolation.html&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoTNDU2MzgwNjM0Njc2NDQ3NzE3MzIaNTI1NjVmODUzZjRjOTZmOTpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNFibDdrwFdrSYuhEcfbMpr3hfhoaA

The isolating effects of human

 development are 

causing a sharp decline in genetic

 diversity among 

mountain lions in Southern
California,

 a new study says.

Researchers from the University of 

California, Davis, 

collected DNA samples from more 

than 350 mountain 

lions throughout California and
 found 

that animals 

separated by little more than a
 highway 

have far less

 genetic material in common than
they

 did just 80 years

ago, suggesting that there is far less 

interbreeding among 

populations.

Pumas in the Santa Ana Mountains 

— effectively fenced in

 by Interstate 15 to the east, the
Pacific

 Ocean to the west 

and Los Angeles to the north —

 displayed lower genetic 

diversity than those from nearly
 any

 other region in the

 state. So severe is their isolation 

that the Santa Ana pumas

 have more in common genetically

 with lions 400 miles to 

the north than their neighbors
 in the

 Santa Monica Mountains.

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Tests revealed
that the decline
 in diversity had
taken place
“within four to
 six mountain lion
generations,” said 

Holly Ernest, lead author

 of the studyin PLOS One.
 “So
we 

know that this is happening 

on a recent time scale” and is a
likely

 result of human development 

rather than natural separation
 from 

other mountain lions.

“Genetically diverse populations
 are

 better able to handle whatever

 nature or humans throw at them,
like

 climate change or disease,”

 said Dr. Ernest, a geneticist now
 at 

the University of Wyoming. “If
mountain

 lions lose that genetic diversity,
they

 lose that resilience.”