Mountain Lion Tracked in Verduga Mountains
14 Jul 2015Usually it’s celebrities making headlines in Los Angeles. This time, it’s a mountain lion that is making news headlines in the Los Angeles area.
Biologists from the National Park Service located the mountain in the Verdugo Mountains, a small mountain chain just north of downtown Los Angeles, on May 7, after an amateur scientists was able to film him. He was given the identifying title P-41 and was fitted with a GPS tracking collar.
The National Park Service biologists hope that the collar will give them the pertinent information that they need in order to document how difficult it is for these animals to survive because of their close proximity to the major freeways that run through Montrose, La Crescenta, Burbank, Glendale and sections of Los Angeles.
P-41 is estimated to be an 8-year old adult male mountain lion who weighs 130 pounds.
According to Kate Kukendall of the National Park Service, after he was spotted, he was captured, blood and tissue samples were taken, he was fitted with a GPS tracking collar and released back into the wild.
People who hike the Verdugo Mountains found it hard to believe that this mountain lion existed. When questioned, Kenny Miranda, a hiker of the area, said that he didn’t have any idea where the animal was coming from because he had never seen or heard of a mountain lion living in the area.
Mountain lions have been an interest of the National Park Service for over a decade.
In addition to P-41, other mountain lions that scientists have been studying include P-22, who has made his home in Griffith Park. In total, there are 11 mountain lions that are being tracked by biologists, including a handful in the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains.
The fate of mountain lions has been very dim in recent years. Due to the influx of human population and the continuously growing traffic and construction, their existence has all but ceased to exist. That is why they 11 mountain lions who are currently being tracked, and likely additional mountains lions will be tracked in the future; because biologists want to learn about their struggle, how human activity is impacting them, how they are adapting and how they can be helped.
According to Kuykendall, it is expected that the DNA of P-41 will be very different than any other animal in close proximity to the area where this mountain lion was found. Other animals that live in the area, like cougars, are solitary beings and very rarely cross freeways.
Scientists are still waiting to see what type of movements P-41 makes based on the information sent back by his GPS collar. The information that they do receive will allow them to learn about what type of locations are easier for mountain lions to cross.
Those interested can view the mountain lions in the area currently being tracked on this map.
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