Amid all the news about protests and coronavirus, there’s a bright spot on the South Coast in the form of three new babies.
A mountain lion living in the Santa Monica Mountains has given birth to a litter of kittens, including two males and one female.
The mother is P-54, a three-year-old mountain lion wearing a radio tracking device as part of ongoing research.
Biologists are excited about the births because they think the father was a mountain lion from another part of the region. The hope is that distinction will help broaden the genetic diversity of the mountain lion population in the region, which has had issues with inbreeding.
Researchers weighed and examined the kittens, and say they all appear to be healthy. Samples were taken for genetic testing, and they were given ear tags to help identify them in the future.
