LOS ANGELES — The young mountain lion was in the central Santa Monica Mountains on a Saturday night when he crossed paths with some biologists.
They captured him, did a medical checkup, fitted him with a radio collar and gave him a name: P-95.
While they were working, they heard chirping noises and later spotted another big cat — likely the young lion’s mother or sibling, according to a post about the Jan. 16 encounter on the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area’s Facebook page.
P-95 weighed in at 90 pounds and is about a year and a half old. The biologists determined he was in good condition after examining him “from the bottom of his paws to the teeth in his head,” then released him.
P-95 joins nine other mountain lions being tracked in Los Angeles County by the National Park Service. Seven, including P-95, roam the Santa Monica Mountains and two the Simi Hills. The infamous P-22, who lives in Griffith Park, once hid out in the crawl space of a Los Feliz home and is suspected of killing a koala at the Los Angeles Zoo.
Scientists have been tagging mountain lions in the area since 2002 to understand how the animals navigate their shrinking habitat.
Hemmed in by urban sprawl, some lions have been killed crossing highways. And with limited territory to roam, they are at risk for inbreeding.
A team led by Jeff Sikich, a biologist with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area, recently found three mountain lions with similar kinked tails and only one descended testicle, indicating a lack of genetic diversity.
