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While we dream about building a park atop the 101 Freeway, L.A.’s wildlife may be getting a new bridge over the 101.Biologists tracking mountain lions over the past decade worry that the big cats are inbreeding in the Santa Monica Mountains because they’re cut off from other lions in the mountains above Simi Valley and further north, City News Service reports. Caltrans officials want a $2 million grant from the government to link two parts of wild state parkland just west of Liberty Canyon Road in Agoura Hills.
The mountain lions have in the past used a freeway overpass over the 118 Freeway at Rocky Peak to cross over. The problem is that the lions have been killed crossing the 101 and the 405 in the area as well, as recently as last October.
National Park System biologists count 10 to 15 mountain lions from Point Mugu east to the 405, in one case further east into the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park. According to NPS biologist Seth Riley, the latest known litter of cubs was born from a male mountain lion mating with his daughter, in the hills above Malibu. He told KPCC last winter:
“If animals can't disperse out, you may be more likely to get close inbreeding, and we've seen a number of instances where fathers have mated with daughters.”
And just FYI: There have been no mountain lion attacks on humans reported in recent years.
