Mountain Lion Had Left Rancher Alone For 8 Months Before Fatal Mistake
Written by 991KBU on February 11, 2020
National Park Service officials announced yesterday that a mountain lion was shot to death in the Santa Monica Mountains by a ranch owner.
The male mountain lion, believed to be 4 or 5 years old, was dubbed P-56 after it was caught and outfitted with a GPS tracking collar in April 2017.
The killing was last week … and officials will not disclose exactly where it happened.
KBUU news is learned that it was near Camarillo … on the other side of the mountains from Malibu.
But past tracking data has indicated that mountain lions range over the entire western end of the mountains … from Camarillo to Malibu to Los Angeles.
And it turns out that the rancher had been able to scare off the cat with some success … before it returned to get again raid farm animals in Camarillo.
State fish and wildlife spokesman Tim Daly.
NEWSCART 06639 DALY COUGAR
“In this situation … the owner dealt with nine incidents involving 12 animals taken over the last two years.
“The most recent one was the day before this permit was issued … the last one the most previous one … that was in the month of June.”
That means an eight month gap between the PRIOR last marauding … and the last straw.
State officials are required by California law to issue a hunting permit Wayne mountain lion repeatedly raids farm animals.
Federal officials at the Santa Monica Mountains national recreation area are not happy.
Ranger Ana Cholo.
NEWSCART 06638 CHOLO COUGAR
“t’s really unfortunate that this male mountain lion is killed.
“ with the Woolsey fire destroying habitat about half of the Mountain constant deaths from rodenticide, road mortality, the isolation of the population by development and highways which leads to lack of genetic diversity, our mountain lions are already facing a significant number of challenges.”
The biological diversity of the Santa Monica Mountains Mountain lions suffered another loss with the killing of this young male mountain lion.
There are others in the mountains above Malibu … but only one male has been tagged with a radio collar by park rangers.
