LOS ANGELES — Conservationists have long warned that Southern California mountain lions could vanish within decades due to inbreeding and loss of habitat. Now, biologists have identified another threat that could hasten their demise — extreme wildfires.
In a paper published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, UCLA researchers found that the 2018 Woolsey fire had greatly increased the odds of a mountain lion being struck fatally by a motorist or killed by a fellow panther in a territorial dispute.
The reason? Mountain lions were so eager to avoid the 100,000-acre burn zone that they chose instead to cross busy roadways within the Santa Monica Mountains or enter the hunting grounds of other adult pumas.
