Fatal Fight Puts Pumas on Brink

Only one adult mountain lion may be left in the Santa Monica Mountains after a male fatally attacked his mate a few weeks ago, park rangers said.

The female had given birth last year, and biologists now fear for the future of the four cubs. Her loss comes after two other cougars -- a male and a female -- died last year and marks a sad twist in the saga of the large cats, which have been the subject of an intense study of how wild animals live so close to urban land.

“We didn’t expect to lose three of the four [adult] lions,” said Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “The loss of the female is of particular concern, because she’s the mother of these four kittens. The real concern now is how the kittens will react.”

So far, the four yearlings seem to be fine and are moving around the central Santa Monicas much as they have in the past. Ray Sauvajot, science director at the recreation area, said the cubs have grown to about 60 pounds and should be able to take down a small deer at this age.

Park officials believe that the male cougar, known as Puma 1 or P1, approached the female, P2, as she was feasting on a freshly killed mule deer Aug. 12. All or some of the pair’s yearling cubs were nearby. Park officials keep track of the lions with radio transmitters they placed on the animals.

“We suspected that she was probably the aggressor because she was trying to protect her kill or her kittens,” Smeck said. “We believe the female may have been in heat and may have attracted the male. For some reason, she was not going to accommodate the male.”

As a result, the two big cats brawled fiercely for several hours in a forested area near Malibu Creek State Park and Mulholland Drive. The male, which weighs about 140 pounds and is thought to be about 4 years old, overwhelmed the female, which weighed about 80 pounds and probably was about 3 years old.

At the time of the fight, one of the park biologists was close enough to hear the growls and howls that echoed through the forest. He couldn’t see the pair, so he didn’t know whether they were breeding or fighting. The park’s policy is not to interfere, so he didn’t approach the lions.

The next day, Sauvajot and other researchers in the office heard the radio transmitter around the female lion’s neck giving off the “mortality signal,” a fast beeping sound that indicates a lack of activity for about eight hours.

They conferred with mountain lion researchers in Colorado and other parts of the West about what to do and when it might be safe to approach the area.

On Sunday, Aug. 14, when P1 seemed to have padded away, a team headed out and found the body of the female lion with bite marks all over, including on her head.

Sauvajot said that kind of attack is not unheard of. “It has nothing to do with whether [the female] was its mate or not,” Sauvajot said. “It was encountering another mountain lion with the kill it wants.”

Fights between two male lions or two female lions are more common than fights between males and females, said Steve Torres, a senior wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game.

“When you have a situation like in the Santa Monica Mountains, where you’re really limited for space and food, you’re probably going to see that type of behavior periodically,” he said.

The two lions that died last fall apparently became ill from eating tainted coyote. The coyotes, scientists believe, had consumed rodents that were poisoned with household- or commercial-grade rat poison.

Park officials said it is possible that there are other mountain lions out there, but so far they have not seen any evidence. Sauvajot was hopeful, because mountain lions are notoriously elusive and could simply be keeping away from people.

The male lion P1 appeared to be suffering no major injuries, though he has been taking a lot of naps, park officials said.

As for the cubs, “mountain lions will stay with their mother for 12 to 18 months, so they’re probably about 13 months old now,” Sauvajot said. “This accelerated the inevitable for them, which is that they were going to be leaving Mom. But they should be old enough to make it on their own, which is sort of the good news from their perspective.”

Scientists hope to replace the small transmitters implanted in the cubs with stronger radio collars in the next few weeks and monitor them more closely.

Male lions typically do not allow other males in their home range, and P1 considers almost all of the 135,000 acres of the recreation area his turf, park officials said.

So the two male cubs are at risk of getting into a fight with their father unless they leave, Sauvajot said. Scientists will be watching what the cubs do and whether they migrate to other areas, such as the Simi Hills or the Santa Susanna Mountains, and how they get there.

“Long-term survival depends on habitat connectivity, and mountain lions become indicators of that connectivity,” Sauvajot said. “What’s critically important from the perspective of our study is we know these two males need to move on. They are going to show us, and fairly soon, what’s possible and what the best options might be.”

Lynn Sadler said her group, the Mountain Lion Foundation, was sad about the death of P2.

“I think it illustrates how hard it is to be a lion in California,” she said.

Sadler despaired about the two lions that died of poisoning a year ago and noted that P1 was under threat two years ago when a nearby landowner got a permit to kill him for preying on his goats.

Luckily for P1, the landowner let the permit expire, but Sadler said those cases illustrate the precarious balance needed for human beings and wild animals to live so close together.

She said she is trying to be hopeful about the yearlings’ survival, though she worries about mountain lions as a species thriving in the Santa Monicas.

“The two females will probably hang around,” she said. “But it’s not particularly good for the gene pool for Dad to be mating with daughters.”

Sadler also worries that losing the mountain lions in the Santa Monicas could topple the ecological equilibrium.

“The Santa Monica Mountains are extraordinarily beautiful,” she said. “They were saved for a reason. If we lose the top carnivore out of that area, the vegetation and the wildlife population can change dramatically, and the very reason we saved the Santa Monicas could disappear.”