The male mountain lion discovered dead near the Santa Monica Mountains in September was killed and mutilated by poachers, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game told the Los Angeles Times. The 7-year-old male, who had been outfitted with a GPS collar and given the name P-15 as part of a tracking program by National Park Service scientists, was discovered in a canyon between the Cal State Channel Islands and Newbury Park in Ventura County on Sept. 11. The tracking collar and been removed and the animal was mutilated.
Tissue samples of the animal were sent to the UCLA Conservation Genetics Resource Center to compare with previous samples of P-15, and his identity was confirmed. P-15 was believed to be among the six or seven mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains. Another male, known by the NPS as P-18, was hit and killed by a car while trying to cross the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center.
DFG officials are requesting that the public send in tips to the agency’s hotline at (800)334-2258 with information regarding the poaching death of P-15. “We’re going to have to get lucky on this,” Hughan told the newspaper. “There’s virtually no forensic evidence.” Hughan said he hoped the public would hear “somebody bragging about how they killed a mountain lion, and they’ll call us.”