Meet LA's New Cougar, P-77

LOS ANGELES, CA — Call it a much needed win for the lions of Los Angeles and the scientists who study them. The National Park Service found a new Mountain Lion to track in the Simi Hills. She’s estimated to be a two-year-old known as P-77, according to the National Park Service.

The discovery comes after a rough couple of months for those studying the mountain lions that roam the hills around Los Angeles. Two lions being tracked died from poisoning after consuming rodenticide. And the famed P-61, the first lion ever tracked across the busy 405 Freeway, died when a larger male lion chased him back across the 405 Freeway and into oncoming traffic.

P-77 appears to be in good health and her tracking collar will help in efforts to better understand and protect the endangered mountain lion population in Southern California. In recent years, the main threats to the local lion population has been poison and dwindling territory hemmed in by busy freeways. At least one study has suggested that the lions will be extinct within 50 years due to the lack of breeding partners, leading to rampant inbreeding among the current population.

P-61 was the most famous lion to be killed by Los Angeles Traffic but hardly the only one.

In crossing the 405 Freeway, P-61 had moved to a small wilderness island already dominated by another male cat. He would have had to survive the encounter or test his luck crossing back over the 405 one side or the 101 Freeway to the north. His luck ran out on his second crossing.

According to the National Park Service, another lion named P-18 was fatally struck by a vehicle in the same area of freeway while attempting a crossing in 2011, and another lion that was not being tracked by researchers was struck and killed in 2009.

Freeways acting as physical barriers to migration have long been identified as threats to the continued survival of mountain lions in the area. In recent years, several big cats have been killed trying to cross the 101 Freeway.

An $87 million wildlife crossing bridge -- financed largely by private donors -- is being planned for the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills. Supporters hope to have it finished in 2023.

Additionally, Two mountain lions being tracked by the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains died after ingesting rat poison, officials confirmed in October.

Rat poison is a common wildlife killer in the region often taking down top predators from lions and coyotes to birds of prey. National Park Service officials have now confirmed five big cat deaths caused by rat poison in the Santa Monica Mountains, but almost every cat being tracked in the region has been found to have some rodenticide in their systems.

The two mountains killed included a female and a male lion that both died in their primes. A 6-year-old male lion found dead Sept. 9 in Topanga State Park died from rat poisoning, a necropsy confirmed. Rat poison was also detected in the liver of a 4-year-old female known as P-53, whose body was found in Malibu.

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