Last month, a now-prolific male mountain lion reportedly sired two sets of kittens in the hills above Los Angeles with two separate female lions, totaling five newborn cats, officials discovered this week. The animals were born in the eastern Santa Susana Mountains north of the city. The Santa Susana connects mountain lion populations in the Santa Monica Mountains with the Los Padres National Forest. Probably one reason the National Park Service was able to hone in on the five kittens.
Not to mention the region is a study area for the National Parks. What’s more intriguing, though, is the animal’s ability to thrive during recent years in such a populated area of the country where a railway and a freeway, not to mention a densely-populated city, impede the roaming animal’s natural hunting habits. Which has authorities nervous.
“The real challenge comes as these kittens grow older and disperse, especially the males, and have to deal with threats from other mountain lions and also road mortality and the possibility of poisoning from anticoagulant rodenticide,” Jeff Sikich, a biologist with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area told the Los Angeles Times.
Both mothers were wearing GPS collars that helped the parks officials track them. The first pair of female kittens found were dubbed P-48 and P-49 while the tykes located in second hollow, rocky cave area were dubbed p-51 (female), and P-50 and P-52, both males. The California Fish and Game estimates that some 4-6,000 mountain lions roam the mountains and foothills of California.
