Mountain lions as a species are not listed as endangered. In California, close to 40 million people live within, or adjacent to, cougar habitat. They already agree on one thing: Humans are the greatest threat to mountain lions. Read more: In a remote corner of California, roaming dog packs leave a trail of blood and terrorĭeciding which figure is most precise will be challenging for biologists tasked with reviewing the census report.

They also set trail cameras and traps, tranquilized lions, took biological samples and fitted animals with tracking collars.ĭellinger said the group spent roughly $2.45 million in state fundsover seven years to produce three population estimates: One suggests there are 4,511 cougars living in California, and the other two suggest the number is roughly 3,200. In a collaborative effort involving the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, the nonprofit Institute for Wildlife Studies and the nonprofit Audubon Canyon Ranch, Dellinger and others traipsed through mountain forests, canyons and desert badlands in search of tracks. “The new, more accurate information we collected will be used to conserve and manage mountain lions more appropriately.” “That old figure was just a back-of-the-envelope calculation without much data to support it,” Dellinger said. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had for decades estimated that the state’s mountain lion population was roughly 6,000 - even despite relentless vehicle strikes, wildfires and encroachment by land-hungry humans throughout their range. Read more: Why did California officials drop two mountain lions in the desert and leave them to die? “There’s never been a study of this scale and over such a large and diverse geographical area with such a variety of habitats,” said Winston Vickers, a co-author of the study and a veterinarian at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. (Oakland Zoo)Ī report on the project’s findings will be reviewed by experts prior to publication in a scientific journal later this year. Two orphaned mountain kittens huddle in a transport crate on their way to the Oakland Zoo in November 2023.

“The Central Valley and portions of the Mojave Desert have no mountain lions.” “The greatest density is in the coastal forests of Humboldt and Mendocino counties of Northwest California, and lowest is the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada range in Inyo County,” said Justin Dellinger, a large-carnivore biologist and leader of the California Mountain Lion Project effort. The count was conducted by state and university scientists who used GPS collar data and genetic information from scat samples to model population densities across the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Mojave Desert and Southern California’s patchwork of weedy, fire-stripped wilderness. The total number of mountain lions is estimated to be between 3,200 and 4,500, which is thousands fewer than previously thought. Scientists have completed the first comprehensive estimate of mountain lions in California, a vital statistic needed to shape puma-friendly land-use decisions and ensure that the predators can find room to roam, mate and find prey. A mountain lion sprints across San Vicente Boulevard, in Brentwood, in October 2022.

Prey densities vs predators