Researchers said Tuesday they were unable to determine the cause of death for a roughly 10-year-old mountain lion whose remains were found near the Verdugo Mountains, but they said the animal had multiple rodent poisons in its system.
National Park Service officials said in October they suspected the 7,000-acre La Tuna Fire may have contributed to the death of the lion known as P-41, but a necropsy determined that the animal’s remains were too decomposed to pinpoint a cause of death.
The presence of six types of rat poison in P-41’s system, however, point to a growing threat to the region’s mountain lion population, officials said.
“We continue to see indications that these poisons are working their way up the food chain through what we believe is unintentional poisoning,” said Seth Riley, wildlife ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
NPS officials said anticoagulant rodenticide compounds have been found in 14 of 15 lions tested for the substance. Researchers believe the lions are not ingesting the poison directly, but get it in their systems by eating rodents such as squirrels that had already ingested it. The poison can also move up the food chain, first by being ingested by a rodent, then infecting a coyote that eats the rodent, then moving into a lion that eats the coyote.
“Exposure to anticoagulant rodenticides is common among the mountain lions we necropsy, from all over the state,” said Deana Clifford, senior wildlife veterinarian for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Sadly, we were not able to determine the cause of death and to tell the full story of this animal, but we do know he was thin at the time of his death.”
–City News Service