3082.California Fires Destroy Habitat Range of Mountain Lions

By Filipa Ioannou, SFGate, November 15, 2018


Photo: Santa Monica Mountains NRA

It's not only humans who are losing their homes as fires tear through California — the fires are destructive enough to wipe out whole swaths of wildlife habitat, as well, taking a toll on Southern California's well-loved and closely tracked mountain lions and bobcats.

The Woolsey Fire ripped through 20,000 acres of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area, more than 80 percent of the land, decimating the native chaparral and coastal sage scrub, replacing them with "scorched earth," a surreal and barren "moonscape," National Park Service spokeswoman Kate Kuykendall told KPCC.

The mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains are closely tracked, their goings-on followed by doting admirers, despite their penchant for mauling the occasional mini-horse.

Eight of the 13 mountain lions with radio collars in and around the Santa Monica Mountains appeared to be alive and moving as of Monday, the Recreation Area wrote on Twitter.

"There are 5 other lions (P-22, P-42, P-47, P-54, P-74) that we're unsure about, either because their GPS collar has not transmitted points yet (not unusual) or because they need to be tracked in person with telemetry," officials wrote.

Three of those mountain lions have since been located. Among them is fan favorite and suspected koala-murderer P-22, the only mountain lion known to have crossed from the western to the eastern flank of the Santa Monica Mountains, crossing two L.A. freeways in the process.

It seems the bobcats have fared worse.

"Of the 4 bobcats we're tracking, it appears the entire home ranges for all 4 have burned," the Recreation Area said Monday. "It's possible they managed to survive but only time will tell."

A home range is a defined area of habitat where mammals find food, shelter and mates, according to the National Park Service.

As of Wednesday, none of the four had been found, "despite fairly extensive efforts."

Since starting last Thursday, the Woolsey Fire has spread to 98,362 acres and was 57 percent contained as of this morning, according to Cal Fire. Three bodies have been found; abating winds are helping firefighters as they work to contain the fire, the growth of which was spurred forward by 50 mph gusts earlier in the week.

The landscape of the Santa Monica Mountains has been altered by major fires before, so biologists have some idea of which species recover best on new, charred terrain. After the 2013 Springs Fire, cameras were set up to monitor animal activity at 90 different points throughout the region

Coyotes and gray foxes were first to return to the burned areas, biologists found, with coyotes spotted even more frequently in burned areas than unburned ones. Rabbits were much slower to return — many died in the fire or starved to death in the aftermath, ecologists said — which also hurt the bobcats that eat them. Bobcats nearly vanished from the burn zone in the year after the fire.

Officials hope the wildlife will recover this time, but nothing is certain, and the danger of mudslides that will likely accompany future rain looms.

"We know that wildlife is extremely adaptable and they still have unburned habitat to the east and the west," said Kuykendall, "but we're not sure what the future holds."