18-year study. The big cat was captured and collared in the Woolsey Fire burn. The burn
scar covers nearly half of the area of the Santa Monica Mountains and large swaths of the
neighboring ranges. The NPS has not revealed the specific location where they found the lioness. Photo courtesy of NPS
P-80 is the latest mountain lion in the National Park Service’s ongoing 18-year study of the big cats in and around the Santa Monica Mountains. NPS spokesperson Ana Cholo revealed that P-80 is estimated to be five or six years old, weighs 82 lbs, and shows signs of recent lactation, indicating that she has been nursing at least one kitten.
Cholo indicated that the big cat was captured in the Woolsey Fire burn area, but did not specify which part of the nearly 100,000-acre area beyond indicating that the cat’s new radio collar has shown her traveling out of the burn zone. “It will be interesting to learn where her home range is and who she may be related to,” Cholo stated. In addition to weighing, measuring and radio-collaring the big cat, blood samples were taken for DNA analysis.