Could These Bridges Keep Mountain Lions Safe?

Mountain lion numbers are dwindling due to the highways that fragment their habitat. Soon, wildlife experts hope to rejoin these lions with a large highway overpass disguised as a continuation of the wild hills to restore genetic diversity to this iconic species.
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Los Angeles is a surprising home for a large predator like the mountain lion, though they have lived there for decades. Today though, mountain lion numbers are dwindling due to the highways fragmenting their habitat into small, isolated sections. Soon, wildlife experts hope to rejoin these lions with a large highway overpass disguised as a continuation of the wild hills to restore genetic diversity to this iconic species.

In the case of the Southern California mountain lions, conservationists don’t want to translocate mountain lions. But what they really want is to enable the mountain lions to move themselves.

And one of the best ways to connect mountain lions for genetic purposes is to link one wild area to another with a network of well-disguised movement corridors and road crossings.

#wildlife #conservation #losangeles #mountainlions #ecology #seeker #science #rewild

Lions in the Santa Monica Mountains?
https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/nature/pumapage.htm
“In a place more often associated with freeways and traffic, the fact that the city can support such large-ranging animals is a testament to the quality of open space and the habitat connectivity that still remains.”

Governor Signs Bill to Curb Use of Rat Poisons That Have Sickened Mountain Lions
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california-news/governor-signs-bill-to-curb-use-of-rat-poisons-that-have-sickened-mountain-lions/2436054/
“The measure had been backed by a trio of conservation groups, which recently submitted 10,000 signatures urging the governor to sign the bill two weeks after the National Park Service reported that a mountain lion and a bobcat died directly from the effects of anticoagulant rat poisons.”

Lions of LA: Are the city’s pumas dangerous predators or celebrity guests?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/13/lions-of-los-angeles
“P-45, the King of Malibu, is a hundred-and-fifty-pound male with golden eyes and mittlike paws who dominates the western swath of the Santa Monicas. After killing an alpaca at a Malibu winery in late 2015, he was captured and fitted with a G.P.S. collar by the National Park Service, which designated him the forty-fifth subject in a long-running study, led by a wildlife ecologist named Seth Riley, on the mountain lions of Los Angeles.”
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