Welcome to the big city P-75!
Earlier this week a young female mountain lion was spotted up a tree in a Pacific Palisades mobile home park according to the California Department of Fish & Wildfire. Officials report that the young 50-pound cougar was “safely tranquilized” and brought back by NPS biologists so that researchers could fit her with an ID ear tag and GPS collar. P-75 was soon after released back into the Santa Monica mountains. [Featured photos courtesy of California Department of Fish & Wildlife]
She’s currently the 75th mountain lion to join the study overall which provides some explanation to her designated name; P-75 joins nine other pumas who are currently active in the Santa Monica Mountains.
We’re rooting for P-75 provided the potential dangers her challenging habit poses due to human-caused threats. Just a few months back, Los Angeles lost three-year-old P-47 after the big cat was infected with rat poison. Freeways also endanger lion’s ability to travel for genetically diverse mating and introduce the chance of being hit by a car. There’s also the possibility of turf wars with other mountain lions… but who likes a helicopter parent any how!