Rangers said one male cub went east to the 405 Freeway, but gave up on city life and is now near Topanga.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
The family of mountain lions that calls the wilderness above Malibu home appears to be thriving, although the exact whereabouts of the family patriarch, named P-1, is not known.
P-1 sired a litter of four cubs last winter, but killed the mother in what may have been a fight over food last summer, said National Park Service officials who track the animals.
“His radio device batteries have failed, and we have not had the opportunity to install a new collar,” said Seth Riley, the wildlife biologist tracking the animals for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
The four cubs, who are now one-year-old large mountain lions, have dispersed into the mountains. Riley said one male cub has ventured as far east as the canyons near Mount St. Mary’s College in Brentwood, but turned back just west of the 405 Freeway near Skirball Center.
“He’s back west of the Old Topanga Road area now,” Riley said. “All four of them are usually in the Malibu Creek State Park area.” Examination of scat shows the cats are well-fed on deer, and the radio tracking shows them to be avoiding populated areas.
The small cougar population has been observed wandering as far west as near Point Mugu, but generally sticks to the steep terrain above the upper reaches of Trancas, Zuma, Triunfo and Malibu canyons. Park service officials said the nearest other cougars are in the mountains north of Simi Valley, although some of those cougars have been tracked moving south across the 118 Freeway near Rocky Peak.
“We have observed one male cougar who has found an equestrian undercrossing under the 118, and he has made nine roundtrips under the freeway at night,” Riley said.
If the cougars wander south through the recently burned hills north of the 101 Freeway, they might enter the Santa Monica range and breed with the local family.
“Liberty Canyon Road is the key,” Riley said. “If they can find that underpass, then a cat can get across the 101 from the mountains on one side to the mountains on the other.”
Biologists are concerned that P-1 may mate with one of his two daughters this spring, causing inbreeding. They have also expected the two male cubs to try to find turf away from the dominant male, P-1, who will become aggressive protecting his territory.
Encounters with the local cats is rare, with a few late-night motorists reporting seeing the cats on mountain roads. SMMNRA superintendent Woody Smeck said he has never seen one.
“That’s one experience I would sure like to have,” he said.
An unrelated young cougar was struck and killed by a car last year. Hunting of the animals is not permitted, although one local man obtained a permit in late 2003 to shoot cougars that were supposedly threatening his goats.
That permit has expired and no animals were killed.
In some foothill areas, the cougar population has grown to the point where some lions are living close to people. In 2004, two people were attacked by the same cat while riding mountain bikes in a wilderness park near San Juan Capistrano; one of them was killed, and the other saved only after her friend wrestled with the full-grown animal.
Rangers killed that animal.
But officials stress that the five local mountain lions have a plentiful supply of deer to eat and are avoiding humans.
“We think there are only five here, but we are not certain,” Riley said. “There could be other cats living here that we haven’t detected.”