Why Did the Mountain Lion Cross the Road?

"For only the second time in 16 years, a mountain lion has been recorded crossing the 101 Freeway south into the Santa Monica Mountains," reports Joseph Serna.

"Moving under the freeway through a pitch black culvert the length of two football fields, the mountain lion identified as P-64 was captured on camera March 1 crossing from Simi Valley and the Santa Susana Mountains to the Santa Monica Mountains," adds Serna.

The news of crossing comes from the National Park Service, which also caught photos of P-64 completing the crossing.

The area near where P-64 crossed the culvert is one of the targeted areas where the National Park Service would like to study and build a wildflife crossing to ensure that animals like P-64 can cross the 101 Freeway and expand their range. "Park officials say without a reliable wildlife crossing over the freeway, the small pocket of mountain lions there will lose genetic diversity to the point the population will eventually go extinct," according to Serna.