California wildlife officials give mountain lions new habitat protections
By Nicole Comstock
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LOS ANGELES (KCAL, KCBS) — Southern California loves its wildlife, and here’s no greater example of that than the affection Los Angeles felt for its most famous feline, P-22, who roamed the Hollywood Hills for over a decade.
In 2023, P-22 died shortly after being hit by a car.
“I love how the world connected to him, and he showed, in real time, what this vote was all about,” said Beth Pratt, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation.
Pratt said today’s California Fish and Game Commission vote classified mountain lions from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Southern California as threatened under the state’s Endangered Species Act, meaning greater habitat protections for the big cats.
Pratt added that our foothill freeways and developments have left them so genetically isolated that the mountain lions are inbreeding themselves nearly to extinction, with some cubs born with birth defects.
“To put it in layman’s terms, they need to be able to get dates outside their family, and that’s not what’s happening now,” Pratt said. “Here, any mountain lion south of the 101, the only options on mountain lion Tinder are selections within their family tree.”
Some builders who called into the meeting argued the new classification could require developers to conduct mitigation studies that would significantly increase construction costs and slow building schedules in a state with a housing crisis.
“My concern is that additional protections for mountain lions might negatively impact farmers and ranchers whose livestock come into contact,” said Kirk Wilbur, a representative from the California Cattlemen’s Association.
Wilbur said his organization is concerned about the big cats preying on their herds. The state said the new classification doesn’t prevent them from intervening in rare conflicts with people or livestock.
“Californians have spoken whether it be P-22, or the Annenberg crossing, we want mountain lions in the landscape for the future,” Pratt said.
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