Someone near the town of Standish in Northern California fortunately took the adage, “See something, say something,”to heart and called a poaching hotline when they saw Richard Parker shoot a hawk on his 80-acre property near the Nevada border. Parker hadn’t killed only the one hawk. As a game warden walked up to Parker’s front […]
One of the most well-known mountain lions in the Los Angeles area was P-41, famous for safely crossing a busy freeway and making his home in the Verdugo Mountains northeast of the city. Tragically, the 10-year-old mountain lion’s good luck ran out in October. His noticeably thin body was discovered a few days after a […]
There are 17 acres of open land in the Hollywood Hills that provide a crucial corridor for wildlife like mountain lions, bobcats and deer. But, as I wrote in October 2015, that land was in danger of being subdivided into a housing development with four mansions, destroying the corridor. This would be devastating for local […]
It’s not an easy life for the mountain lions and other animals that make their home in the Santa Monica Mountains. Because they’re so isolated, Los Angeles mountain lions are almost 100 percent likely to become extinct in 50 years due to inbreeding, which can cause health problems and unusual behavior. Leaving their territory is […]
Voters in Arizona could soon have the chance to protect wild cats in the state from being senselessly killed for sport thanks to a ballot measure that was just launched in the state. Arizonans for Wildlife, a coalition of dozens of animal advocacy and conservation organizations and state lawmakers, recently filed a ballot initiative with […]
On Aug. 9, 2017 Superior Court Judge Lydia Villarreal found in favor of a coalition of wildlife protection groups, including the Animal Legal Defense Fund, in its challenge to Monterey County, California’s contract renewal with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. The judge’s decision is a win for wildlife in Monterey, and a warning […]
Large carnivores tend to instill fear in us, whether it’s based on myth, or simply a healthy respect for apex predators. But as it turns out, just the sound of our voices is enough to send them running — at least in the case of mountain lions. “We exposed pumas in the Santa Cruz mountains […]
When three mountain lion cubs were discovered with their mother, P-39, in the Los Angeles area last July, experts were concerned about the cubs’ chances for survival. Among the threats to mountain lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains are death due to ingesting rat poison, health issues caused by inbreeding, and, most dangerously, the […]
Despite persistent outrage from the public, the U.S. government killed 2.7 million wild animals in 2016 — and almost 1.6 million were native wildlife, according to data released this week. That’s roughly five animals every minute. Even after scientific investigations by a team of ecologists cast serious doubts around the necessity of these killings, Wildlife […]
Conservationists are celebrating after sighting a young mountain lion they did not know existed amid a tiny, threatened population of the animals in the hills around Los Angeles. Wildlife experts were amazed both that they had not previously spotted the animal and that it was alive at all. The kitten survived a spate of recent […]
The most famous cougar in Hollywood doesn’t work in television. And he’s male. For the past three years, a male mountain lion has been living in the center of bustling Los Angeles, crossing 10-lane highways, getting his picture taken near the Hollywood sign, and attracting worldwide attention. On Tuesday morning, the cat was holed up […]
More mountain lions are turning up in urban areas around the San Francisco Bay, and researchers are trying to catch and track the animals. With camera traps and tracking collars, they are getting a better understanding of what is now the top predator in the East Bay. This video was first published […]
Since making his Hollywood debut two years ago, P-22 has kept a low profile, avoiding the cameras and surfacing only at night. But this private celebrity is no movie star or pop icon—he’s the resident mountain lion of downtown Los Angeles. In late March, when scientists captured the famous feline to change the batteries in […]
