There’s an adorable new mountain lion on the prowl in the Santa Monica Mountains. Researchers think the recently-discovered female kitten was probably born in January. The cub, now officially known as P-54, is being called “good news” by the National Park Service, according to KTLA.
Still, there seems to be a bit of drama amongst our favorite urban wildlife family. The mother of P-54 is a pretty well-documented lioness called P-23, but the father is not entirely clear. Most likely, paternity tests will confirm the suspicion that it’s P-30, the half-brother to mama lion. That could make P-54 susceptible to some serious genetic issues stemming from inbreeding.
That the pair would have mated despite familial proximity isn’t entirely surprising given the small number of mountain lions that roam the particularly restricted habitat of the Santa Monica Mountains, where this group of lions resides. The animals are frequently killed by cars or other human and natural causes, leaving only a small number out in the wild. Just three months ago, a mother and two cubs were all run down by drivers on the 118 Freeway.
So what can be done to help young P-54 have the best chance in life? One proposal is a wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway that would safely connect an area where a small pod of mountain lions currently lives in isolation to a second habitat with a larger, more robust pride (and possibly a fresher gene pool, to boot).
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