Wildfires could kill off mountain lions in California

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

Wildfires could kill off mountain lions that roam in the hills above Los Angeles, warns a new study.

Researchers say fires make the animals, which were already at risk of extinction, more likely to have dangerous encounters with people and other mountain lions.

After the 2018 Wolsey Fire struck, mountain lions increasingly put themselves at risk by crossing roads including freeways.

In the 15 months after the fire, they crossed roads five times a month on average compared to three times before the fire.

Before the fire, they crossed the busy 10 lane 101 freeway every two years, but afterwards they crossed it every four months.

They also started moving around during the day more than they used to, raising their risk of dangerous encounters with humans.

The lions were traveling almost 250 miles per month on average after the blaze struck, up from 155 miles per month on average before the fire.

They now need to travel further to find essential food and resources, but this puts them at a greater risk of skirmishes with other mountain lions.

However, they still tended to avoid heavily populated urban areas.

They still only spend four to five percent of their time in busy built up areas despite the effects of the fires.

“The idea that mountain lions will run across freeways, rather than take their chances in urban areas, really reinforces how strongly mountain lions avoid humans," said study author Rachel Blakey from the University of California.

“This is an important point, because people who live in the urban-wildland interface often worry that large disturbances like this could increase human-wildlife conflict.”

She has long been starstruck by the lions and calls their existence in such a bustling city “miraculous."

When the fire struck and scorched out half of the creatures’ habitat, Blakey and her colleagues wanted to know what it meant for the big cats.

To do this, the team examined GPS and accelerometer data from 17 lions before and after the fire tore through the city.

Some of the researchers had been tracking the animals for more than 20 years which meant the data was easily available.

The authors say their findings highlight the need for wildlife habitats in cities to be joined up by infrastructure.

They add that the opening of the Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing, soon to be the largest wildlife crossing in the world, is an encouraging step in the right direction.

However, the risk to lions from wildfires is just the “tip of the iceberg,” the researchers claim.

More and more lions are being hit by cars, for reasons that are not entirely clear.

They are also dying from pesticides used to kill rodents, which stop their blood from clotting properly.

People can also help protect the creatures by driving less and not starting wildfires, while governments can create more green space.

The team plan to continue studying the creatures to work out how wildfires and other pressures will affect the their survival.

The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.