World, meet P-113, P-114, and P-115.
That’s the designation for 3 wholesome, month-old feminine mountain lion kittens that biologists just lately found nestled in a dense patch of poison oak rising round giant boulders within the Simi Hills.
The sisters belong to P-77, a 5- or 6-year-old lion who biologists captured and radio-tagged in the identical space just a few years in the past. Researchers hope to do the identical with the three kittens late subsequent yr, simply earlier than the women get sufficiently old to go away their mother.
Tagging these lions is a part of a Nationwide Park Service research that’s been occurring in and across the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002, in an try to find out how the cats survive — or don’t — and what may assist to stabilize their threatened existence.
Every year, native mountain lions are killed making an attempt to cross close by freeways, by poachers, and thru publicity to rat poison and different hazards that include dwelling so near an city heart. Fenced into the realm by the 101 and 405 freeways, and different man-made obstacles in different elements of Southern California, space mountain lion populations are scuffling with the consequences of inbreeding that researchers say might sooner or later wipe them out. And final yr was a very brutal one for native mountain lions, together with the loss of life of world-famous P-22.
That’s why researchers are excited to see three wholesome females born into the realm, mentioned Jeff Sikich, lead discipline biologist for the NPS mountain lion research.
“We want better genetic variety for our mountain lion populations,” Sikich mentioned, including that extra females are notably wanted to spice up replica charges.
A couple of weeks earlier than they noticed the kittens, Sikich mentioned his staff seen by GPS factors from P-77’s radio tracker that she was spending intensive time in a single space. Three to 5 days in a single spot may point out she’d taken down an grownup deer she was feasting on, he mentioned. However after she stayed put for every week and a half, in late April, he mentioned they had been assured she’d given start.
So on Might 18, he set out with a small staff to the realm the place P-77 had lingered. They waited till her radio collar indicated she’d left the realm, then obtained inside 70 meters of the hotspot. One staff saved a watch on P-77’s location, so they might steer clear if she began heading again. As they drew nearer, Sikich approached alone in an effort to disturb the realm as little as doable.
About half the time he goes out looking, Sikich mentioned he hears the kittens first. This time he noticed them, regardless of the dense poison oak they had been hiding in. The plant doesn’t set off reactions in mountain lions the best way it does many people, he famous. Not as fortunate, Sikich climbed in fastidiously, gloves and masks in place, to seize the kittens and take them again to 2 researchers ready close by.
There within the discipline, the staff checked the intercourse of every kitten. Additionally they weighed them, with all three coming in at a wholesome three to 4 kilos. They took organic samples, which they’ll quickly use to do some genetic mapping. And so they put small, color-coded markers on every ear to allow them to establish the kittens later in the event that they’re noticed on wildlife cameras. When the kittens get sufficiently old, researchers will attempt to put radio collars on them.
The staff has equally marked 24 different litters at their den websites because the research began 21 years in the past. They marked 4 further litters when the kittens had been at the least six months outdated and touring with their mom.
The identification of the kittens’ dad stays a thriller. And Sikich suspects it’ll stay that manner even after they do DNA sequencing, since he mentioned they haven’t been following any males on this space of late. Meaning he possible got here from the Santa Susana Mountains, rendezvoused with P-77, after which returned dwelling.
The final two grownup males usually tracked within the Simi Hills had been P-64, who died through the Woolsey Fireplace in December 2018, and P-38, who was poached in July 2019.
That is the primary litter of kittens noticed in all the area since final summer time, when researchers tagged two units of kittens. They noticed three of these kittens on wildlife cameras a month or so in the past, Sikich mentioned, in order that they’re optimistic about survival charges. And so they hope to trace these lions in late fall so as to add radio collars.
The newest litter marked within the Simi Hills was in 2020, when P-67 gave start to a boy and a lady. However P-67 was discovered useless that very same day, with infected intestines and rat poison in her system. Researchers tried to get one other space lion to foster the cubs, however finally needed to ship them to a conservation heart in Arizona.
The Simi Hills are a small habitat space between the bigger Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountain ranges, with the 101 and 118 freeways on both aspect. P-77 has established her grownup dwelling vary on this space, although she’s beforehand crossed each freeways and has spent brief intervals within the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountains.
Because the three new sisters develop, Sikich mentioned it’ll be fascinating to see in the event that they keep on this slim space or in the event that they try and cross surrounding freeways to enter bigger habitat areas.
Freeway crossings are at all times treacherous. That’s why building is underway now on what would be the largest wildlife crossing on the planet, with a grass-covered bridge set to cross 10 lanes of the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills.
That mission ought to wrap up in early 2025 — proper across the time P-113, P-114, and P-115 can be resulting from go away their mother’s aspect.
Hopefully, Sikich mentioned researchers will get to “watch” by way of radio pings because the sisters use the bridge to soundly make their manner into the world.
