Mountain lion P-81 was killed Sunday on Pacific Coast Highway, probably struck by a car, the National Park Service announced. P-81 was “significant in our mountain lion study due to his physical abnormalities — a kinked tail where the end is shaped like the letter ‘L’ and only one descended testicle,” the park service said. The abnormalities were the first pieces of physical evidence of possible inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity in the mountain lion population. The findings increased the “urgency of understanding, maintaining, and increasing connectivity for wildlife in the region,” the park service said. With P-81’s probable death by vehicle strike, the total number of cougars hit and killed by cars since March 2022 rises to nine, the park service said.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 28, 2023 05:50 UTC