SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California mountain lion known to researchers as P-32 has struck out on his own and made a new home in a rare and significant move for the region’s cougar community, researchers said Friday.
National Park Service researchers believe the 1-year-old male who was living in his family den in the Santa Monica Mountains crossed two freeways - including the eight-lane U.S. 101 - and settled into a natural area of the Simi Hills not far from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
P-32’s sister, P-33, also successfully crossed the 101 and found a new home this year.
Prior to the crossings only one mountain lion in 13 years of study had successfully crossed the freeway.
P-32’s successful move is healthy and welcome, experts said.
“Almost all of the young male mountain lions we’ve studied die prematurely, either from a vehicle collision or after a fight with a dominant adult male,” Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement. “It’s hugely significant that P-32 was able to disperse out of the Santa Monica Mountains so that he has a chance to avoid larger males and eventually establish his own territory.”
In February, the brother and sister cougars were captured interacting and feeding on a carcass in a series of photographs that gave researchers a close glimpse into their lives. They were 15 months old but are now old enough to leave their mother.
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