California adds mountain lions to its endangered species list
Hillel Aron
(CN) — California granted permanent protections to mountain lions in a large swatch of the state on Thursday, adding the pumas to the state’s endangered species list.
“This is a major milestone for a California icon,” said Tiffany Yap, the urban wildlands science director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Mountain lions are a marvel, but too many across the Golden State are struggling in the diminished and fractured wild places where they live. I’m celebrating this vote as a new chapter for pumas, and I hold so much hope for their future.”
The protections cover six mountain lion populations: those in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Central Coast, Santa Monica Mountains, San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains, Santa Ana Mountains and Eastern Peninsular ranges. They are a legal mandate to all state agencies to protect the pumas.
All development projects in California must identify and minimize any potential harm to the habitat of endangered species. The state may also come up with a recovery plan aimed at increasing the mountain lion population, which is especially threatened by rat poison, as well as vehicle traffic, wildfires and disease.
Scientists believe there to be between 3,200 and 4,500 mountain lions left in California.
It is not uncommon for mountain lions to pop up in major cities in California. Last month, a 77-pound, 2-year-old lion, dubbed 157M, was seen strolling through San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. After a three-hour, multiagency cat hunt, the puma was tranquilized and transported back to a more suitable habitat.
Perhaps the most famous mountain lion in recent memory was P-22, who lived in Griffith Park in Los Angeles for about 10 years. The cat was captured by a remote camera passing beneath the Hollywood sign and became the subject of at least two books and a TV show. The Museum of Natural History still sells stuffed animal P-22, three years after the cat was euthanized.
The 210-foot Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — a $92 million vegetated overpass over the 101 freeway, connecting the Simi Hills with the Santa Monica Mountains — is currently under construction in Agoura Hills, just north of LA. Though the project, the longest of its kind in the world, will benefit a range of animals, it is expected to be especially crucial for the survival of mountain lions in the area. It is currently scheduled to open toward the end of this year.