A well-documented mountain lion—known as P-41—has died according to the National Park Service. Stunning photographs of the big cat were captured by amateur scientists who set up motion-controlled cameras in their backyard. The photos were then shared with wildlife experts, who had been tracking him. A few pictures of the animal were published two years ago and went viral.
The lion was believed to be about a decade old and weighed 130 pounds. Spokespeople from the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife say a necropsy will be conducted soon and tests will be performed to see if the lion ingested any rat poison. The big cat is known to have fathered four offspring. Two were struck and killed on local freeways. Jeff Sikich, a wildlife biologist, said, “P-41 had already overcome a number of challenges to survive in a relatively small home range with a habitat fragmented by roads and development.”