The National Park Service (NPS) has added two mountain lions, P-55 and P-56, to its study. Both were caught in early April in the same spot in the western Santa Monica Mountains and researchers suspect they could be siblings and will run DNA analysis to confirm. These two will face the same threats as previous younger males in the mountains: a habitat fragmented by freeways and development, a proliferation of rat poison moving up the food chain and dominant male lions who already have staked a claim to the area. Due to these challenges, it’s rare for male lions in the Santa Monica Mountains to survive beyond the age of two.
