“The mountain lion retains the two things that are perhaps most dear to any animal – dignity and mystery. And with these all life deepens.” – Barry Lopez
I live at the edge of Sunset Boulevard and the Ice Age. It’s easy for me to go back and forth between civilization and wilderness, to make this crossing, but not so easy for the creatures with whom I share this intersection.
For instance, consider the cougar. Outside of Mumbai, there is only one place in the world where mountain lions live on the perimeter of a major metropolis, and that’s Southern California.
In LA, the big cats often dwell on geographic islands, their habitats interrupted by freeways and major thoroughfares. They are killed by vehicles all too often as they try to find mates, dinner, avoid competitors or roam. Last October, the 4-year-old cougar known as P-61, in an ongoing National Park Service study of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, was hit by a car in the Sepulveda Pass early one day at 4 a.m. as he was trying to cross the 405. He had been fitted with a tracking collar in 2017, and just two months before he was killed, he had successfully made the 10-lane crossing.
Other lions around Los Angeles have encountered the same tragic fate as P-61. Last September, a large male mountain lion was struck on the 101 near Calabasas and his body was found against a rampart early one morning. In August 2011, P-18, just 4 months old, headed east from his mother’s range in Malibu Creek State Park and then wound up in the southbound lanes of the 405 near the Getty on-ramp and was hit and killed by a car between 6 and 7:30 in the morning. And on the list goes.
In fact, between 2002 – when NPS biologists began studying cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains – and 2019, motorists have struck and killed 17 of the lions in the research region, according to a federal record.
The large cats face other threats as well. To control rats and mice that live in local canyons and brush, rodenticide is often used, and once deployed, it enters the ecosystem. A rat is poisoned, say, and then the poison is ingested by a mountain lion that eats the vermin.
It’s what happened last year to two mountain lions, P-30 and P-47, who then succumbed to the substance, and that may have been what took down the 4-year-old female known as P-53 in Malibu as well.
There is a third major threat, and that’s inbreeding. Due to diminishing territory and the difficulty of crossing freeways to find new mates and replenish the gene pool, mountain lions are sometimes breeding within their own families. This leads to deformities and ultimately an inability to survive.
By last year, the cumulative effect of these obstacles had become so dire that scientists announced that the mountain lions of Southern California – including populations in the Santa Monicas and Santa Anas in Orange and Riverside counties – were facing “an extinction vortex” and could disappear from both regions within 50 years.
To head that off, the state Fish and Game Commission last year granted temporary endangered species status to the several hundred remaining mountain lions of Southern California and the Central Coast, pending a permanent decision in 2022.
Fortunately for mountain lions, prior to that announcement, a spokescat had emerged and had reached superstar status as the population of his brothers and sisters began to crash. This is the telegenic P-22, who presented himself to a wildlife camera on the trail in Griffith Park in 2012. There had been rumors of cougars in the park for years; now came proof.
Then in 2013, the cat was again photographed in what has become the world’s most famous wildlife selfie. The handsome fellow set off a camera just beneath the Hollywood sign above the 101 Freeway, and soon was collared and tagged by biologists.
P-22 has since become known as “the Brad Pitt of mountain lions” – and that has been a good thing for these magnificent creatures whose ancestors’ bones have been found at the La Brea Tar Pits.
Bridge to survivalA breathtaking plan is now underway, and it’s one that could not just preserve this iconic predator but help other species as well. This is the proposed wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon in the Agoura Hills, spanning a 10-lane section of the 101 Freeway and connecting the Simi Hills with the Santa Monica Mountains. This site was selected because land to the north and south of the freeway is publicly owned and protected, which means that development of adjacent terrain can’t happen – and animals using the bridge will not have to run a gauntlet just to cross from one side of the freeway to the other.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, a partner in the project, “In addition to saving the mountain lions from possible extinction, the crossing will also reconnect a long-fragmented ecosystem for all wildlife in an area recognized as one of only 36 biodiversity hotspots worldwide.”
Other partners in this endeavor include Caltrans and the National Park Service, joining an unprecedented public-private venture in wildlife preservation.
The bridge is stunning in scope and design, the result of years-long research carried out by Living Habitats, whose team includes ecologists, scientists and herpetologists. The crossing is almost a habitat unto itself. According to the group, the 200-foot-long span “will be covered in nearly one acre of native vegetation, some of which will come from seeds, acorns and mushrooms that will be grown in a special project nursery.”
These will be planted on-site so that the vegetation in the habitat grows naturally across the bridge from the soil up.
Native oak and willow trees from the site also will be planted. Additionally, nearly nine acres of space along the two adjoining slopes that the bridge connects will be improved. In short, it sounds and looks like a California dreamscape – just what’s needed for the creatures which preceded us in the wildlands that are home to us all.
50-mile journeyTo highlight the importance of this crossing and take its critical nature beyond fatality statistics, Beth Pratt, the regional director of the National Wildlife Federation, five years ago embarked on a four-day hike, literally following in the footsteps of P-22 as he made his way from one range to another, traversing freeways and ultimately finding safe haven in Griffith Park.
Beginning with a blessing from members of the Chumash tribe at the Liberty Canyon trailhead, she retraced the 50-mile path that P-22 took when he left his birthplace in the Santa Monica Mountains to reach his current home in Griffith Park, wearing a tracking collar en route and accompanied by other advocates for cougar preservation.
“We’re doing something vital here,” she said, referring to plans for the crossing, and now, it is almost at hand.
January marked an important milestone for the Liberty Canyon crossing. The fundraising benchmark of $18 million was met, including a large gift from an anonymous donor along with donations from people around the world who have been moved by the plight of LA’s mountain lions. Along with those of us in the region, they have been following the saga of P-22 and his kin for years, and are seeking to preserve what’s wild.
As it stands now, Caltrans will release blueprints for the crossing this summer (the state agency does so much more than move orange cones around!).
Meanwhile, through the periodic signals emanating from tracking collars that are affixed to the mighty and beautiful mountain lion, we are called right back to the Ice Age. With groundbreaking for the world’s largest wildlife crossing set for November, the cougars of Los Angeles soon will be able to move from one separated range to the next without having to weave through fast-moving cars and trucks to get the other side.
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