Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area - Lions in the Santa Monica Mountains? (U.S. National Park Service)

Female puma is seated in wildland close to Los Angeles.

In a place where urbanization is on the edge of wildlands, it is hard for a puma to find a place to rest.

Many people are surprised to hear that mountains lions still live in the chaparral-covered peaks so close to urban Los Angeles.

Since 2002 the National Park Service, with the support of the California State Parks and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, has been conducting a scientific project to
learn more about the habits of mountain lions in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Scientists also want to know how human development and urbanization is impacting the large cats.

So far, National Park Service biologists have monitored eight mountain lions with radio-collars and GPS tracking devices, enabling them to learn a lot about the animals’ ecology and behavior. Identified threats to the lions include habitat loss or fragmentation by roads and urban development. Another threat is secondary poisoning from feeding on animals like coyotes that have consumed poisoned rodents. The monitored lions are elusive, staying away from people and behaving “naturally” despite all the urban development that surrounds them. The size of a mountain lion’s home range in the Santa Monica Mountains is not particularly different from those in areas with little or no urban development. The home range is around 150 square miles for adult males and 40 square miles for adult females. As for feeding habits, mountain lions typically eat about one deer per week, along with other smaller prey, and the animals in the Santa Monica Mountains are no exception.

Biologists have also been monitoring the movements of mountain lions to identify wildlife corridors, open spaces that link the Santa Monica Mountains to other large natural areas and allow the lions to move between them. Genetically, lions in the Santa Monicas are at the southern end of a larger population that extends northward to Big Sur. The long-term survival of mountain lion populations here depends on their ability to move between regions to maintain genetic diversity.

The National Park Service and its partners use such information to develop management plans that protect landscapes critical to wildlife. This promotes the long-term health of our native animal populations, including mountain lions, the ecosystem’s top carnivore. – Morgan Robertson, National Park Service Wildlife Biologist

To find out more about these large cats, visit the following websites:

Mountain Lion Foundation www.mountainlion.org

California Wildlife Center www.californiawildlifecenter.org

California Dept. of Fish & Game www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion.html