Despite gaining protected status, Orange County’s mountain lions are anything but, increasingly facing the dangers of being killed while crossing local roads like Ortega Highway.
Just last week, another juvenile mountain lion was killed along the roadway.
Last fall, two mountain lion cubs, a brother and a sister, were orphaned when their mother was struck and killed by a car.
On Ortega Highway.
And last December, the brother was killed, just like his mother.
Again on Ortega Highway.
That’s three protected lions struck dead within roughly six months.
Surviving Orange County
After collaring the two orphaned cubs last fall, Fernando Najera, who heads up UC Davis’ Carnivore Project, said scientists were worried because the cubs were only 15-16 months old.
[Read: Can Two Orphaned 14 Month Old Mountain Lion Cubs Survive Orange County?]
“That age is quite sensitive because it’s when they are following mom and getting to know hunting skills,” Najera said.
But the pair seemed to be finding their way, with scientists following them via camera traps, which documented their first deer kill.
The recorded tracking of the mountain lions up until December had shown the female cub crossing Ortega Highway over a dozen times safely, following in her mothers footsteps.
However the first time the male cub crossed Ortega, UC Davis scientists noticed his recorded movement pattern changed.
“The animal was behaving extremely strangely because he wasn’t moving as he was moving before so we were thinking maybe he has a kill on the other side of Ortega,” said Najera.
However, when they checked in the field, they saw no signs of a kill and would later discover him severely limping on their camera traps.
“The animal was skinny, so we know that the animal was already one week without properly feeding so we decided to capture him and figure out what was going on,” said Najera.
They found the cub suffering from a fractured humerus.
Despite surgical efforts and intensive care, the fracture did not resolve and after consulting with specialists and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, scientists made what they termed a difficult decision to euthanize the cub to prevent further suffering.
“This kind of tragic news is always a really good reminder that there are wildlife among us and we do affect them in a lot of different ways,” said Tiffany Yap, a senior scientist and wildlife corridor advocate for the Center of Biological Diversity.
“Ortega is one of the hotspots that we know that is an area that is frequently crossed by mountain lions,” said UC Davis’ Najera, adding “There is nothing that can prevent mountain lions to cross.”
The highway – winding along the Santa Ana Mountains in South Orange County ending up in Riverside by Lake Elsinore – is still being actively used as a crossing by other mountain lions like F315 and M316 as recorded by the UC Davis Carnivore Project.
Now, the issue is catching the attention of CalTrans officials, who noted there could soon be some wildlife safety improvements along Ortega Highway.
“District 12 is coordinating internally and with local partners to navigate potentially feasible wildlife crossing improvements in the area,” a CalTrans spokesperson said in an email.
Protecting Mountain Lions
The three deaths come off the heels of what should be a major success for Orange County’s mountain lions – protected species status.
Just last month, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife voted to include six regional populations of Southern California mountain lions as threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.
Mountain lions received candidacy status for protection in 2020, which granted them temporary protections that have now become permanent with their establishment as a threatened species.
These protections include a mandate to state agencies to conserve the species, meaning that when new roads or developments are springing up in mountain lion habitat, developers have to consider the impact to mountain lions and consider wildlife connectivity in proposed projects.
“We can make things better for them and for us by getting more wildlife crossings on our roads, by implementing fencing appropriately and really planning our roads and development in ways that are more wildlife friendly so that we can coexist,” Yap said.
Protected status also opens up the possibility of a recovery plan sometime down the line if the California Department of Fish and Wildlife deems it necessary.
“If they pursue that avenue to develop and implement a recovery plan,” said Yap, “that could include things like improving existing barriers and getting more wildlife crossings on our roads.”
