According to Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Ranger Ana Beatriz, mountain lion P-65 is making history as the second radio-collared female mountain lion to cross the 101 Freeway. Moving northward into the Simi Hills, during the National Park Service's 17-year-old study of these large cats that live in and adjacent to the city of Los Angeles. The rare event occurred on August 21 between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m.
Researchers are not sure exactly where she crossed along the 101, but GPS data indicates it was in the Liberty Canyon area of Agoura Hills where a wildlife bridge has been proposed. She was not picked up on any of our remote cameras monitoring wildlife movement through a culvert or underpass in this area, so biologists believe she most likely ran across the actual roadway. P-65 has stayed up north and only crossed the freeway once.
P-33 is the only other collared female mountain lion to have crossed the 101 Freeway. She blazed the trail when she crossed the 101 northward into the Simi Hills in March of 2015 on the far western end of the Santa Monica Mountains, near the border of Thousand Oaks and Camarillo. She eventually made her way to Los Padres National Forest, which is the nearest source population for mountain lions. This marked the first documented and successful dispersal out of the Santa Monica Mountains and into a new home range. Sadly, P-33 died of unknown causes last summer.
P-65 was first captured and collared in the central portion of the Santa Monica Mountains in March 2018. She survived the Woolsey Fire and, in fact, her home range has continued to be entirely within the burn area.
