Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
7-Month-Old Mountain Lion Killed On Same Freeway As His Mother
Just weeks after his mother was found dead, a seven-month-old mountain lion cub in the Santa Susanna Mountains was killed on the same stretch of freeway.On Thursday afternoon, the National Park Service announced in a Facebook post that P-52 was struck and killed by a vehicle on the 118 freeway. P-52 was one of the three cubs of P-39, who was also killed by a vehicle on December 3. Ranger Kate Kuykendall of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area told LAist that P-52 was killed on December 20 near Kuehner Drive, just a few miles away from where P-39 was killed.
Officials are unsure whether P-52's siblings, P-50 and P-51, are still alive, and do not know of their whereabouts. "We haven't heard any information about them since we ear-tagged them six or seven months ago," said Kuykendall. "They are not wearing a tracking device." At the time of P-39's death, biologists believed that the cubs were still too young to survive on their own.
Despite their photogenic appearance in the photos taken back in June, Kuykendall stressed that the cubs would be 7 to 8 months old at this point, making them about "significantly less helpless than they previously appeared" and wandering about on their own. However, mountain lions typically don't leave their mother until they are 12-to-18 months old.
P-52 is the fourteenth mountain lion known to have been killed on the roads in the area since 2002. Officials with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife have collected P-52's body and will be conducting a necropsy to determine his health at the time of his death.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist