Mountain lion P-32 and killed on I5

Cheri Carlson

Aug 13, 2015

CASTAIC LAKE, Calif. - The only male mountain lion known to have made it north out of the Santa Monica Mountains was struck and killed on a highway Monday. Dubbed Puma 32, or P-32, the juvenile mountain lion crossed Highway 101 near Thousand Oaks on April 3.

With that crossing, he was the first young male to successfully disperse out of the Santa Monica Mountains in a long-term study of the isolated population. Since, he had crossed three other highways and made it all the way to Los Padres National Forest.

The park service, which tracks his movements using GPS data from his collar, said it had been a textbook case of successful dispersal. P-32 was headed east Monday morning when he was hit by a vehicle on Interstate 5 near Castaic Lake between 4 and 6 a.m., the park service said. “This case illustrates the challenges mountain lions in this region face, particularly males,” said Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.


“P-32 conquered all kinds of freeways and highways to reach the Los Padres, but it was probably another dominant male that made him leave the area and attempt one last crossing, which obviously was not successful.”

The National Park Service has studied the isolated Santa Monica Mountains population since 2002.
During that time, researchers are aware of only one male mountain lion born in the Santa Monica Mountains that survived into adulthood. That is P-22, the Griffith Park mountain lion.

While DNA indicates he was born in the Santa Monicas, his dispersal is not considered successful because he’s now isolated in a small area with no other mountain lions.

Mountain lions typically leave their mothers when they are 12 to 18 months old. But in the Santa Monica Mountains, finding one’s own territory can be a challenge.

Fenced in by highways and urban areas, the area is too isolated and not big enough, the long-term study has shown. Dispersing gives young mountain lions a chance to avoid larger males and eventually establish their own territory, Riley has said.


P-32, the 12th mountain lion killed on a freeway or road since the study began, had been tracked since he and his siblings were a few weeks old.

Wildlife crossings on Highway 101 could help more lions make it out of and into the Santa Monica Mountains. Several agencies are looking at the possibility of such a crossing at Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills.

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