Southern California’s mountain lions have faced serious threats for some time, but a new study highlights the urgent need to act before we lose these incredible big cats forever. According to wildlife scientists, who just published their findings in the journal “Ecological Applications,” two populations of mountain lions in the Santa Monica and Santa Anita […]
Tag: mountain lion
Peccary’s disappearance foreboding for other Mesoamerican wildlife
The white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari), a hairy, pig-like mammal that once lived throughout the forests of Central and South America, now only skitters around in 13 percent of its former range, according to a report released in November 2018. More than two-thirds of white-lipped peccary populations are on the decline, said scientists who met to […]
Pumas engineer their environment, providing habitat for other species
New research suggests that mountain lions in the western United States play an outsize role in changing their surroundings, leading the authors of the study to suggest that the big cats are “ecosystem engineers.” In a study published online Nov. 30 in the journal Oecologia, biologist Mark Elbroch and his colleagues demonstrate that the assortment […]
Rat Poison Found in 85 Percent of Tested Wild Animals in California
State regulators in California have opened the door to what could be a big win for wildlife, pets and people by launching a reevaluation on a potential ban of super-toxic rat poisons. While there are a number of different types of rodenticides, the worst ones around are second-generation anti-coagulant rodenticides, which include brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone […]
POLL: Should more States suspend this cruel and deadly wildlife program?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program uses millions of taxpayer dollars — often to slaughter hundreds of thousands of wild animals every year. Earlier this spring, numbers released from the agency showed it killed a shocking 1.3 million native animals last year alone. Not only is the death toll staggering, its use of […]
Mountain Lion Cubs Discovered in California Mountains Bring Hope
Researchers with the National Park Service (NPS) have just discovered four little blue-eyed mountain lion kittens living in California’s Simi Hills, who have brought hope for a population that’s in serious jeopardy. According to the NPS, all four of the kittens are female, who are just over four-weeks-old, have become officially known as P-66, P-67, […]
California Man Killed Over 135 Birds in State’s Worst Raptor Poaching Case
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 […]
Did Rat Poison Kill a Famous L.A. Mountain Lion?
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 […]