Mountain lion P-54, who was struck by a automotive and killed within the Santa Monica Mountains early this summer time, was pregnant with 4 full-term kittens when she died, Nationwide Park Service officers introduced Wednesday. That makes her dying a fair larger blow for these involved in regards to the space’s dwindling mountain lion inhabitants.
“The devastating dying of P-54 and her 4 unborn kittens is a morbid reminder that we're driving our beloved pumas in the direction of extinction,” mentioned Tiffany Yap, a senior scientist on the Heart for Organic Range.
Park officers mentioned checks additionally revealed that P-54 and all 4 of her unborn kittens had rat poison of their techniques after they died.
It’s the primary time within the 20 years the park service has been finding out mountain lions within the space that they’ve been in a position to check fetuses for anticoagulant rodenticides, which may trigger rats — and animals linked to them within the meals chain, from hawks to foxes to mountain lions — to internally bleed to dying. And the information wasn’t good.
“Sadly, we’ve realized that mountain lions are prone to rat poisons even earlier than they're born,” mentioned Jeff Sikich, a biologist on the mountain lion mission at Santa Monica Mountains Nationwide Recreation Space.
One class of rat poison — second-generation anticoagulants — has been banned for client use in California since 2014, based mostly on the documented dangers these poisons pose to wildlife and pets.
However when the buyer ban was established, the state allowed licensed pest management corporations to proceed utilizing them. And, 4 years later, the state reported that second-generation anticoagulants nonetheless have been displaying up in 90% of examined mountain lions, 88% of examined bobcats and 70% of examined northern noticed owls. Between the summer time of 2018 and spring of 2019 alone, the deaths of 4 Southern California mountain lions have been linked to rat poison.
In fall 2020, California handed Meeting Invoice 1788. With exceptions for some medical and meals manufacturing services, the regulation completely banned the usage of second-generation anticoagulants in wildlife settings. The regulation additionally quickly banned their business use in all places else, pending the outcomes of research nonetheless underway by the Division of Pesticide Regulation.
However first-generation anticoagulants and different types of rat poison are nonetheless extensively permitted. And biologists say the outcomes from P-54 and her kittens present that publicity to rat poisons remains to be widespread.
Like nearly each different mountain lion examined in and across the Santa Monica Mountains, park service officers mentioned they discovered anticoagulant rodenticide compounds in P-54’s liver. The five-year-old lion had been uncovered to 5 varieties of anticoagulants, plus a neurotoxin known as bromethalin.
The animal’s unborn kittens — two boys and two women — additionally examined constructive for not less than three anticoagulants. And Nationwide Park Service researchers have now documented these toxins in 39 out of 40 native mountain lions examined, together with the 4 fetuses.
Officers say the dying of P-54 highlights two of probably the most harmful components for native wildlife: toxicants and automobiles. She was killed June 17 on Las Virgenes Street between Piuma Street and Mulholland Freeway. After her physique was taken to the California Animal Well being and Meals Security Lab in San Bernardino, researchers decided her reason for dying to be traumatic accidents, together with a number of fractures to the ribs and left femur.
Seven mountain lions within the research space have been hit and killed by vehicles since January, making 2022 the deadliest 12 months on report for mountain lions being hit by automobiles, in accordance with Ana Beatriz Cholo, spokeswoman for the park service.
For the reason that park service began its research, 20 years in the past, Cholo mentioned 32 mountain lions have died within the space. The newest was discovered two weeks in the past, when two-year-old P-90 was hit and killed on a freeway in Ventura County — simply weeks after his brother was fatally hit on a close-by freeway.
4 years in the past, P-54’s mom was hit and killed on the identical street the place she died in June. And in April, P-54’s 18-month-old son was killed by a automotive on the 405 freeway close to the Getty Heart. He’d solely not too long ago struck out on his personal.
Yap mentioned the information sheds recent gentle on the necessity for Meeting Invoice 2344, which might require transportation businesses to review and plan for wildlife passages that would scale back car deaths and hold animal habitats extra linked. The invoice “could be a giant step in the direction of defending these iconic cats,” Yap mentioned.
The invoice handed the legislature in August and is now ready on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
Development is already underway on the $87 million Wallis Annenberg Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills, which can give mountain lions and different wildlife protected passage over the 101 freeway. That mission is anticipated to be full in 2023.