WildFutures invites you to join us for a free webinar.

Big Cats in the City: Ecology, Behavior and Conservation of Mountain Lions around Los Angeles

​Presented by Seth P.D. Riley, PhD, Wildlife Ecologist,
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area
Tuesday, May 15th, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. (PST)
Moderated by Sharon Negri, Founder & Director, WildFutures

In this interactive webinar, Seth will share what he and his colleagues have learned about how mountain lions manage in crowded urban landscapes. With footage from hidden cameras, photographs, and detailed maps, you will learn how these animals are crossing freeways, how well they reproduce and survive, threats they face from being isolated in their shrinking habitat, and the impact of less obvious threats such as rodenticides. Seth will also talk about how residents in Los Angeles are learning to live with their wild neighbors, the triumphs of past and current conservation efforts, and what it all means for the future of these big cats.

Presenter Seth Riley, Wildlife Ecologist with the National Park Service (NPS) at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area for 18 years, has researched the impacts of urbanization and fragmentation on bobcats, mountain lions, amphibians, reptiles and amphibians. As adjunct professor at UCLA, Seth has also studied the impacts of freeways on mountain lions, bobcats and other wildlife. He received his Ph.D in Ecology from the University of California, Davis in 1999. Seth co-edited books on Urban Carnivores (2010), and Roads and Ecological Infrastructure (2015) which looks at the effects of roads on smaller wildlife species.

Host Sharon Negri is the founder and director of WildFutures and the producer of the 6-minute video, The Secret Life of Mountain Lions. For 30 years, Sharon has worked to advance protections for mountain lions and other wildlife, and collaborates with conservation and wildlife organizations, biologists, and wildlife agencies to find innovative solutions to large carnivore conservation. She also provides capacity building programs and services for leaders and the missions they serve.

Alexa has been instrumental to the success of The Secret Lives of Mountain Lions, and we wanted to ask her a few questions about her participation and see how her experience has been. We hope you enjoy hearing from Alexa about what it has been like working on a project with the potential to affect large-scale environmental decisions.

​What attracted you to this project? 
I was so excited at the opportunity to work on this project! It combines my passion for wildlife, education and the Spanish language.

I have always loved wildlife. I grew up in and out of the garden, playing with insects. In my teens I monitored rocky intertidal pools and started working for wildlife hospitals, bringing home orphaned wildlife to be hand-raised until they were old enough to be released. In college I studied biology, neuroscience and behavior and dedicated my time outside of school to wildlife medicine. With this experience, I considered myself not only a wildlife advocate, but somewhat of an expert.

When I first saw this footage, I was surprised. The cougars in this footage completely shifted my perspective on the species, forcing me to reconsider so much of what I thought I knew about the species. I believe that this footage has the power to do the same for many more, and this is so important for the conservation of these animals. When our perspectives shift, and we begin to cultivate compassion for mountain lions, ceasing to see them as solitary and only aggressive creatures, we are so much more likely to create space and habitat for them. Like many species, mountain lions biggest threat to survival is human activity. Between developing natural habitats, and trophy hunting, we are pushing mountain lions into smaller and smaller pockets of their range. In order to change this trend, we need to change the way we relate to mountain lions, and the narratives we have created about them.  In shifting our perspectives towards mountain lions and other species, cultivating compassion for them and creating space, I believe we also recognize the humanity within ourselves.

What did you contribute to this film? 
In order to make La vida secreta de los pumas accessible to the greatest number of Spanish-speakers, I contacted several Spanish speaking biologists both in the U.S. and Latin America. Knowing that within Latin America, there are many different versions of Spanish spoken, we wanted to choose our words and descriptions carefully, so that the largest amount of people would understand. For instance, what I initially thought we might call the video, the direct translation of “The Secret Life of Mountain Lions”, is not what we ended up calling the film, or the term we most commonly used. In fact, most people throughout Latin America know Mountain Lions as “pumas” or “león americano”. Some do refer to the species as “león de montaña”, the direct translation of mountain lion, but this was not the most widely used word, so did not end up being used a lot in the translated script. Along with the help of biologists, friends and a professional translator, and many back and forth conversations, we finally settled on a version. I learned an incredible amount about the Spanish language and the skill of translation in the process. 

We were lucky to find Jorge Vázquez Pacheco. We cast a large net, asking our contacts in Latin America if they had any recommendations. We got sample recordings from radio show hosts, actors and others from all across North, Central and South America. We ultimately selected Jorge because we thought he had both a neutral accent and a very clear, expressive way of speaking. He was a joy to work with.

Why did you chose to work with WildFutures?
Previous to working for WildFutures, nearly all of my professional career has been spent doing direct animal care. Upon graduating from college, I set off to gain as much wildlife medicine experience as possible, moving from wildlife hospital, to exotic animal sanctuary, to zoo, learning as much as I could. While I loved the interaction of working with individual animals, I was ultimately somewhat disheartened by the scope of my work. I often could not do nearly as much as I wanted to, and what I was able to do ended with that individual. I found myself looking for work that could go beyond individual patient care, and reach a broader audience, potentially shaping the future for wild animal welfare. Luckily, I met Sharon and she has bravely taken a chance with me, allowing me to participate in this project which I so wholeheartedly believe in.

Have you ever seen a mountain lion in the wild? 
While I have never seen a mountain lion in the wild directly, I have had many close encounters with this species. First, when I was in my early twenties, I worked at a zoo as part of a veterinary team. Several times while there  I worked with a mountain lion named Johnny, who had been raised by a human family until they had to move and were forced to give him up. While we examined him he would purr and lick our hands through the fence constantly, always incredibly affectionate. Although it sadenned me to see him so confined, living a life so removed from that of a wild mountain lion, I still enjoyed opportunities to interact with him. 
More recently however, I have interacted with mountain lions in a different way. I have had the pleasure of monitoring the wildlife camera traps of the ranch that I live on. Nearly once a month we see the same mountain lion traversing across the property. He has an ocular defect in one eye and is known to nearby biologists as Harvey. Although I have never seen him without the help of the cameras, I get great pleasure in the knowledge that I share my space and home with this animal.

Legal Victory Guarantees Analysis of Wildlife Services’ Killings in Northern California
 
SAN FRANCISCO— In response to a lawsuit filed by wildlife advocacy groups, a San Francisco federal court today approved a settlement requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to implement numerous protections for wildlife in Northern California, including a ban on traps and aerial gunning in designated “wilderness areas.”
 
Today’s settlement also requires Wildlife Services to analyze the environmental impacts of its killing of coyotes, bobcats and other wildlife in 16 counties in Northern California.
 
The ironically named Wildlife Services is a multimillion-dollar federal program that uses painful leghold traps, strangulation snares, poisons and aerial gunning to kill wolves, coyotes, cougars, birds and other wild animals — primarily to benefit the agriculture and livestock industries.
 
“This is a big victory for California wildlife targeted by this federal program’s horrifically destructive war on animals,” said Collette Adkins, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney representing the conservation groups involved in the lawsuit. “We’ve saved hundreds of animals that would have suffered and died in traps set by Wildlife Services over the next several years. That feels really good.”
 
Under the court order approved today, Wildlife Services must provide, by the end of 2023, an “environmental impact statement” that analyzes the effects and risks of its wildlife-killing program in California’s North District. The North District includes Butte, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity and Yuba counties.
 
Pending completion of that study, which will include robust public commenting opportunities, the court order imposes several measures to protect wildlife in the North District. It bans the use of M-44 cyanide devices, den fumigants and lead ammunition. It bans aerial gunning and any use of body-gripping traps, such as strangulation snares and steel-jaw leghold traps, in designated wilderness and wilderness study areas. The order also requires Wildlife Services to implement several measures to protect California’s endangered gray wolves from being accidentally killed in traps set for other carnivores. These measures include a ban on Conibear traps and non-breakaway snares in areas used by the wolves.
 
“Wolves are just starting to return to their native habitats in Northern California, and this settlement provides needed interim protections to protect wolves while a detailed environmental study examines whether lethal wildlife ‘management’ options should even be on the table,” said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project. “It is long past time that federal agencies stop the killing of native wildlife at the behest of the livestock industry, and ultimately we hope that the added public scrutiny will force a shift to nonlethal options.”
 
Last year Wildlife Services reported killing 1.6 million native animals nationwide. In California alone this total included 3,893 coyotes, 142 foxes, 83 black bears, 18 bobcats and thousands of other creatures. Nontarget animals — including protected wildlife such as wolves, Pacific fisher and eagles — are at risk from Wildlife Services’ indiscriminate methods.
 
“For over two decades, Wildlife Services has relied on cruel and outdated methods, such as steel-jaw leghold traps, in California — despite a statewide ban on private use of such devices,” said Tara Zuardo, Animal Welfare Institute wildlife attorney. “Today’s decision from the court ensures the environmental analysis of the program’s killing of wildlife will receive a much-needed update. California wildlife deserves this protection.”
 
“Wildlife Services’ lethal ‘control’ is ineffective, wasteful and cruel,” said Michelle Lute, wildlife coexistence campaigner for WildEarth Guardians. “We are changing this clandestine government program state-by-state until wildlife and people are safe on our public lands.”
 
“With this victory for wildlife we have demonstrated that Wildlife Services has failed to use the best available science and continues to rely on ecologically destructive and ethically indefensible management practices,” said Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Project Coyote. “It is past time that this rogue agency shifts to more effective, humane, and ecologically sound ways of reducing conflicts between wildlife and agricultural interests.”
 
“Thousands of California wildlife will now have a much needed reprieve from the federal killing agency,” said Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. “This settlement sends the powerful message that Wildlife Services’ indiscriminate killing programs will not go unchallenged.”
 
The victory announced today is the result of a lawsuit filed in June by the Center for Biological Diversity, Western Watersheds Project, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Project Coyote, the Animal Welfare Institute and WildEarth Guardians.
 
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.5 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
 
The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1979 to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are punished for their crimes; supports tough animal protection legislation and fights harmful legislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visit aldf.org.
 
The Animal Welfare Institute (awionline.org) is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people.  AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public to achieve better treatment of animals everywhere — in the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild.
Project Coyote is a national nonprofit organization and a North American coalition of wildlife educators, scientists, ranchers, and community leaders promoting coexistence between people and wildlife, and compassionate conservation through education, science, and advocacy. For more information, visitwww.projectcoyote.org.
 
Western Watersheds Project is an environmental conservation group working to protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife
 
WildEarth Guardians works to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers and health of the American West.

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Cougars have very long tails, which help them to balance. Do you notice anything that looks different about this cougar than many of the others we feature on this site? This cougar lives in captivity. You can tell by the fat belly, which you might recognize if you know any older domestic housecats, who tend to develop the same characteristic.