User:Adflatuss/Mountain lions of the Santa Monica Mountains

Mountain lions of the Santa Monica Mountains are part of six isolated and genetically distinct clans from Santa Cruz to the Mexico–United States border that make up a sub–population of the North American cougar (Puma concolor couguar). Commonly called mountain lions in southern California, the elusive animals are part of a long term study in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and surrounding areas by the National Park Service.

Population
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Habitat
The Santa Monica Mountains, just north of Los Angeles, contain rugged canyonlands where an isolated population of less than two dozen mountain lions live. The population mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains is is stable with healthy rates of survival and reproduction.

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Threats
The number one cause of death for mountain lions in the study is intraspecific strife, or mountain lions killing other mountain lions. Though common in other populations, this rate may be exacerbated by the fact that mountain lions are basically trapped on an island of habitat, surrounded by freeways and the Pacific Ocean.

Another major threat to the species is the widespread presence of anticoagulant rodenticides, commonly known as rat poisons, in the environment. Twenty-three out of 24 mountain lions tested in the study have tested positive for one or more anticoagulant compounds and three have died of intoxicant poisoning.

The long-term survival of mountain lions in this region, however, is threatened by a number of factors, none more significant than the loss and fragmentation of habitat by roads and development. This leads not only to deaths from vehicle collisions, but also multiple cases of first-order inbreeding because animals are not able to disperse in and out of the area. Genetic analyses indicate that lions in the Santa Monica Mountains have among the lowest genetic diversity of any mountain lion population ever documented.

Human interaction
Wildlife corridor Santa Susana -

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