A baby mountain lion found in the middle of a Castaic roadway last week has now been transported to the Los Angeles Zoo for temporary housing after reunification efforts have failed, according to a California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson.
But all hope has not been lost, and biologists are optimistic that they can get the female cub to reunite with its mother with assistance from Castaic residents.
The female mountain lion, which is estimated to be 4 to 5 months old, was transported to the L.A. Zoo on Saturday following two nights of reunification efforts, Cort Klopping, a Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
It was initially believed she may have been hit by a car, but following a thorough assessment, veterinarians did not locate any broken bones, swelling or obvious issues. The baby mountain lion did have a laceration in its right front paw but was overall in good condition. How exactly the cub injured its paw was unknown.
Now biologists are requesting Castaic residents to report any mountain lion sightings to Fish and Wildlife through their “sightings” page found on the official website: wildlife.ca.gov/Sightings. He did not advise for residents to go out to the open space in search of the lions themselves.
Klopping asked residents to review up to five days of footage from their home security cameras and other surveillance systems to see if any mountain lion activity was captured on video. Klopping also asked if residents could review the following next five days of footage as well.
Fish and Wildlife personnel believe the female cub may have been traveling with its mother and another cub, so that’s the lead they’re hoping to get, Klopping said.
“It would be awesome,” Klopping said if local residents could help with the efforts. “It’s one of those, ‘We’re all in this together,’ situations where all of us want the best possible outcome.”
Fish and Wildlife personnel set up cameras around the area, and biologists were continuously monitoring the cub during the reunification efforts, but nothing came of it, Klopping said. To keep the cub safe, biologists decided to transport her to the zoo.
The mountain lion cub is not available for viewing at the zoo, and that is because “the big stress here is keeping an animal from becoming habituated with humans. Anytime you want to release a wild animal back in the wild, you make sure that you do as little as possible that would make them comfortable or accustomed to being around people.”
If the mountain lion cub cannot be reunited with its family, she would then be taken to a rehabilitation center because she’s too young to fend for herself, according to Klopping.
When exactly the decision to relocate the cub will be made was not yet known, he added.
Personnel are optimistic that reuniting the cub with its family will be successful and “we wouldn’t be asking if we didn’t think so. If it seemed like there wasn’t, if it was unlikely, this cub would have already been transported to a rehabilitation facility,” Klopping said.
