Los Angeles not too long ago celebrated the lifetime of a really well-known and dearly beloved persona: \u201cHollywood Cat\u201d P-22 (Puma No. 22). The sole mountain lion to make the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Center its residence<\/a> gained fairly the fame throughout his \u2018reign\u2019 in Tinsel Town.<\/strong> His loss of life by euthanasia\u2014due to present sicknesses and a current damage from a doable car strike\u2014was bemoaned by many animal lovers domestically, nationally and even globally.<\/p>\n Unique to P-022\u2019s case was that he known as Griffith Park, on the jap facet of the Santa Monica Mountains, his residence\u2014a really small geographic space for an grownup puma to thrive in or discover a mate. P-22 made it over from the western facet of the mountains the place he was born, crossing two main metropolis freeways\u2014one thing that different mountain lions have died trying.<\/p>\n Through his lengthy presence in L.A., P-22 introduced consideration to pumas worldwide. In this reminiscence, we discover this massive cat\u2019s historical past\u2014and future.<\/strong><\/p>\n Pumas, cougars, panthers, painters, catamounts, mountain lions\u2014all of those names refer to 1 massive wild cat with the scientific identify Puma concolor<\/a><\/em>.<\/strong> The multitude of names could be attributed to the animal\u2019s previous abundance throughout the western hemisphere and the completely different tribes and nationalities that encountered the species over time.<\/p>\n Today, the story is completely different. Only 14 western states in North America have mountain lion populations, with a couple of different very small and negligible numbers in different places.<\/strong> Experts estimate that about 30,000 cougars name the United States residence, with the bulk residing in Colorado, Montana and California.<\/p>\n Reasons for the lowered numbers embody progress in human populations the place mountain lions had been as soon as current, poaching and looking, lack of habitat because of pure disasters and land improvement, and even air pollution.<\/strong> And with most mountain lions sustaining a solitary presence\u2014they solely transfer in packs when mating or parenting\u2014monitoring their actions is a Herculean process.<\/p>\n At Bryce Canyon National Park<\/a><\/strong>, mountain lions have been sometimes noticed at night time alongside the park roads or when caught for a fast second in automobile headlights. The massive cats are most lively within the winter, when climate situations preserve the vast majority of guests at bay. Mountain lions may also be discovered within the Grand Canyon<\/a><\/strong>, however right here, too, they’re elusive and intensely troublesome to trace.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Central and South America have some puma populations as nicely, largely concentrated in Peru<\/a>, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile<\/a>, Honduras, Panama, Belize and Costa Rica<\/a>.<\/strong> Mountain lions can survive in quite a lot of habitats, together with mountains, forests and even deserts.<\/p>\n On the prowl within the American Southwest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Although thought-about of \u2018least concern\u2019 per the International Union for Conservation of Nature Panthera<\/strong><\/a>, a corporation that works to guard wild cats, makes use of outreach, analysis, monitoring and training to assist promote progress in mountain lion numbers. The nonprofit\u2019s essential targets are to coach the general public about pumas and their significance to ecosystems, deal with the fragmentation of mountain lion habitats that negatively impacts the connectedness of the puma populations, scale back looking and trapping of the species, and enhance human tolerance towards them.<\/p>\nWhere Do Mountain Lions Live?<\/h2>\n
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8 Fast Facts About Mountain Lions<\/h2>\n
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Cougar Conservation<\/h2>\n
Red List of Threatened Species<\/a>, it is very important act now to preserve the species, as numbers of mature mountain lions preserve declining.<\/strong> Several organizations are concerned in applications to extend mountain lion populations of their areas by way of training, analysis, consciousness and different conservation efforts<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n