Sunday Fun: The Mountain Lions of Los Angeles Get Their Own Social Media Presence
After making a gratuitous "cougar" in Los Angeles joke, Elina Shatkin shares the news of the new online profiles of the 53 mountain lions tagged by the National Park Service over the past 14 years.
The so-called Puma Profiles put faces to the names of the region's big cats, which have mustered a little bit of a fan club among the residents of the celebrity-obsessed city. The mountain lion known as P-22, for instance, was captured in a now-famous photo at night in front of the Hollywood sign.
The article focuses on the science behind the tracking and analysis of the region's mountain lions, which face numerous environmental threats—from rodenticide to freeways to inbreeding. The risks of urban wildlife—on both sides of the equation—were documented in more variety by a 2015 book titled Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle.
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