California’s wildfires have claimed yet another victim – a female mountain lion whose paws were badly burned in a fire last year died in August, 10 months after being released back into the wild.
The cougar, dubbed "Monrovia," was injured in last year’s Bobcat Fire, according to a statement on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Facebook page.
She was found in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills in Los Angeles County and died around Aug. 15, according to the satellite tracking collar officials had put on her after she was rehabilitated last year from September 2020 to October 2020.
Officials guessed she was about 6 or 7 years old when she was rescued. Most mountain lions live up to 10 years in the wild. After her release, she settled into the San Gabriel Mountain area and lived a successful life, according to tracking.
She was spotted occasionally walking with a male cougar via trail cameras.
"Life can be treacherous for mountain lions in the wild," state Fish and Wildlife officials said in the Facebook post. "They can succumb to vehicular strikes, fights with other lions, accidents while trying to kill prey, poaching and other hazards."
Her body was found in a deep canyon near where she was first rescued. Officials conducted a necropsy, but they were ultimately unable to determine the cause of her death. But based on their tracking, they know that she lived the last year, "without ever being involved in human-mountain lion conflict," the statement read. "This further illustrates that mountain lions can and do live among the communities in San Gabriel foothills."
Monrovia is another example of the wildlife cost that fires have in California. From the sequoia trees recently damaged from the KNP Complex Fire, to a bear named Tamarack with burned paws from the fire burning in the South Lake Tahoe area, California’s wildfires impact all forms of life.
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