Friday night soother: P-54 where are you?

Friday night soother: P-54 where are you?

by digby







The latest addition to the Santa Monica Mountains’ troop of mountain lions is a furry, 4-week-old kitten birthed by a widely known cougar whose photo was snapped as she feasted on a deer.

The female kitten, named P-54, is believed to be the product of inbreeding, which researchers said is a growing phenomenon in the Santa Monica Mountains animals because of a shrinking genetic pool. The kitten’s mother, P-23, likely mated with her mother’s half-sibling, P-30, according to the National Park Service.

“The good news is that local mountain lions continue to reproduce successfully,” biologist Jeff Sikich said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, these animals are stuck on an island of habitat, with very little movement in and out of the Santa Monica Mountains, which has led to multiple cases of inbreeding.”

Researchers tracked the cats as they traveled together for three days. About 90 days later, researchers discovered that P-23 had given birth.

Researchers think P-23 may have birthed more than one kitten.

“We are planning on placing cameras on a deer kill of the mom's and trying to get photos later to see how many kittens she has with her,” Kuykendall said.

If genetic testing confirms that P-30 is the kitten’s father, her birth would be the first record of him fathering kittens, the park service said.

Like other mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, P-23 has also gained notoriety. A photograph showing her dragging a deer into brush in the Malibu Springs area provided a rare glimpse of how mountains lions handle their prey.


This "bridge to coexistence" would help:


Roadways are not just physical barriers that can affect wildlife, but they also fragment habitat and result in highly decreased genetic diversity for the species. Mountain lion’s movements are restricted due to lack of proper habitat, so it is not uncommon for inbreeding to occur within the Southern California cats. A study published in 2014 by the University Of California Davis School Of Veterinary Medicine looked at 354 mountain lions statewide, including 97 from Southern California. It found a correlation between low genetic diversity (implicating inbreeding) and lions living in isolated areas where they were unable to freely roam and establish new territories or mates. During their study, they observed just one lion known to cross the 101 freeway, P-12, and it was found he “significantly increased the genetic diversity of that population.”





I hope it happens.

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