Mountain lion crosses popular L.A. freeway in rare feat
A male mountain lion known as P-61 performed a rare feat recently when it successfully crossed a popular Los Angeles freeway in the Sepulveda Pass.
In the 17 years since mountain lions have been studied in the area, P-61 became the first collared mountain lion to cross the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass area, doing so sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on July 19, the National Park Service announced Thursday.
Even with lighter traffic at those hours on a Friday, crossing the 405 Freeway is no easy task for a mountain lion. Freeways act as fences for them. Researchers have documented numerous mountain lions traveling up to the edge of the freeway but not crossing.
“Although P-61 successfully crossed the 405, his feat is a reminder of how challenging Southern California’s road network is for mountain lions and other wildlife, as well,” Jeff Sikich, biologist for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said in a statement. “Others haven’t been so lucky.”
In the same general area, a collared mountain lion known as P-18 was hit and killed by a vehicle in 2011 and an uncollared mountain lion was hit and killed in 2009.
At some point, P-22 did successfully cross the 405 Freeway before it was collared in what the National Park Service called the most well-known example of a mountain lion crossing the 405 Freeway. Little is known of its journey, however.
“DNA testing indicates that was born in the Santa Monica Mountains and therefore had to make his way across both the 405 and the 101 Freeways on his journey to Griffith Park, where he has lived for more than seven years,” the National Park Service said.
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Interestingly, researchers are aware of an uncollared mountain lion that lives in the relatively small area between the 405 and 101 Freeways where P-61 just entered.
“It will be interesting to see if P-61 stays in the area, whether he decides to challenge the uncollared lion, or if he heads back to the other side of the freeway,” Sikich said. “Although it’s a relatively small area of habitat, it’s certainly larger than the Griffith Park area and does have a patchwork of natural areas.”
The National Park Service has studied more than 45 mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002. Researchers hope to learn more about the “landscape connectivity in the highly fragmented area” by studying the data points P-61’s GPS collar collects.
Photos of P-61 and the 405 Freeway in Sepulveda Pass courtesy of the National Park Service and Wikipedia Commons.