It's A Girl! Meet LA's Newest Mountain Lion

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Santa Monica Mountains have one more mountain lion this year thanks to the birth of P-54, a 4-week-old female mountain lion kitten, whose mother is the famed cat caught on camera eating a dear on Mulholland Highway.

P-54 is believed to be the result of inbreeding among the isolated population of lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains, National Park Service officials said.

If the fate of her brothers and sisters from past litters is any indication, survival will be an uphill battle for P-54. The kitten is the third litter for P-23. and P-30. P-23's two previous litters were preyed upon by other animals, including a male mountain lion captured on camera eating the kittens. Only one of her kittens is known to have survived. That cat is now known as P-53.

NPS officials, who have been tracking lions in the Santa Monica Mountains for 15 years, identified the kitten's mother, and its father is believed to be P-23's half-brother, known as P-30. Genetic testing still needs to be done on the kitten to confirm the father. If confirmed, it would be the first litter fathered by P-30. GPS tracking showed the pair of lions spending time together for a couple of days, and the kitten was born 90 days later - the standard gestational period for a lion, said National Parks Service spokeswoman Kate Kuykendall. When she stayed in one spot for a few days, biologists had an inkling she had given birth. That's when they located her den with P-54 in it.

It's the twelfth litter of kittens identified by National Park Service biologists at a den site. The park service has been studying the local animal population since 2002.

Earlier this year, kittens from one of the other litters were killed on a Los Angeles freeway just weeks after their mother suffered the same fate.

"The good news is that local mountain lions continue to reproduce successfully. Unfortunately, these animals are stuck on an island of habitat, with very little movement in and out of the Santa Monica Mountains, which has led to multiple cases of inbreeding," said Jeff Sikich, biologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

"Southern California’s extensive freeway network has been shown to be a major barrier for wildlife and has particularly hemmed in the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains," said Kuykendall. "A proposed wildlife crossing on U.S. Highway 101 in Agoura Hills would provide a connection between the genetically isolated population in the Santa Monica Mountains and the robust populations to the north."

However, the project is in danger of stalling unless supporters can come up with $10 million in funding this year for the early phase of development. In all, $50 million will be needed to fund the project, which is expected to take about five years, said Kuykendall. The National Wildlife Federation is accepting donations to help build the bridge.

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City News Service contributed to this report. Photos: National Park Service