California officials have voted to permanently protect certain mountain lion populations along the state’s coast under the California Endangered Species Act, weeks after a mountain lion wandered into San Francisco, according to the Associated Press. On Thursday, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to list six groups of Central Coast and Southern California mountain lions as “threatened,” a move state wildlife officials said is intended to address risks that include habitat isolation and inbreeding.
The commission’s decision covers the mountainous coastal range between the Bay Area and the Mexican border, where isolated mountain lion populations are vulnerable, advocates and scientists said. The groups designated as threatened account for about one-third of the roughly 4,200 solitary mountain lions thought to roam California, AP reported.
The threatened status is expected to change how development projects proceed in the affected areas. With mountain lions protected under the state endangered species framework, state and local planning agencies must determine whether projects such as new roads and buildings could harm protected species and habitats, and require developers to reduce that harm when possible. Advocates said the listing would trigger habitat protections under the California Environmental Quality Act, including efforts that could reduce habitat fragmentation.
Chris Wilmers, a University of California, Santa Cruz professor of wildlife ecology and lead investigator of the Santa Cruz Puma Project, supported the move. “If we want to maintain mountain lion populations in these coastal regions, then we’ve got some work to do,” Wilmers said during the commission proceedings, according to AP. Builders’ representatives, while not opposing protected status, challenged some details of how habitat maps for the listing would operate.
In a letter, the California Building Industry Association and the Building Industry Association of Southern California warned that the state’s current habitat maps could force developers in urban areas into additional studies and mitigation efforts that “would significantly increase project costs and schedules,” AP reported. The letter also said planning agencies would need to account for potential impacts to listed mountain lion populations.
Opponents of the listing focused on the practical consequences of more protections, arguing they could lead to more conflicts between people and mountain lions. Ranchers and residents in hilly, remote Bay Area and Central Coast suburbs argued that additional rules could spur more attacks on people and livestock and harm ranchers’ livelihoods. Greg Fontana, whose family has ranched in San Mateo County for generations, wrote to the board that people have captured mountain lions on cameras “all the time eating house cats off peoples’ porches, dogs dragged off in broad daylight right in front of their owners, and children being mauled,” AP reported.
AP reported that commissioners also heard from wildlife officials about how the act would be applied in conflict situations. Stephen Gonzalez, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the state endangered species act does not prevent intervention when mountain lions threaten people or livestock. He said the department can “issue permits for take of a … listed species for ‘management’ purposes,” which could include managing mountain lions that kill pets and livestock.
Gonzalez said the department already uses such tools during the period when mountain lions have temporary protections while the state considers a final listing. He said it “anticipates it will continue to do so … evaluating each situation on a case-by-case basis and continuing to prioritize non-lethal methods,” AP reported.
Scientists and advocates told the commission that habitat isolation has increased the genetic risks facing mountain lions along the coast. AP reported that physical signs of inbreeding, including kinked tails, testicular defects, and malformed sperm, have appeared in cougars corralled by freeways in the mountains of Southern California. Wilmers said a kinked tail, shaped like an “L,” may not harm an individual animal, but he described it as an ominous sign for population-level inbreeding.
Wilmers recalled seeing a kinked tail on a trail camera in the Santa Cruz mountains. “It was definitely an ‘Oh shit’ moment,” Wilmers said. “This is really happening,” AP reported. Advocates linked those concerns to the idea that isolated populations can lose access to mates, raising the risk that reproduction and survival fail as inbreeding takes hold over time.
To counter multiple threats ranging from car accidents to rat poison and wildfires, advocates said they pursued the listing through petitions and review. AP reported that the Center for Biological Diversity and the Mountain Lion Foundation petitioned in 2019 to list Central Coast and Southern California mountain lions as threatened, and that in December a staff report recommended the state finalize the listing after adjustments to the protected area.
Even with existing efforts to connect habitats, advocates argued current measures fall short. California has already begun spending “millions of dollars” on highway crossings meant to allow wildlife safe passage over or under roads where scientists reported hundreds of mountain lions were killed over a seven-year stretch, AP said. Yap said those steps were not enough, pointing to San Francisco’s recent visit from a cougar as an example of what can happen when animals disperse without sufficient pathways.
Yap said young male mountain lions disperse to find territory and mates, but without corridors to suitable habitat they can end up in developed neighborhoods. AP reported that in San Francisco, the cougar weighing about 80 pounds ended up sandwiched in a narrow space between apartment buildings; Yap said she watched California Fish and Wildlife biologists and veterinarians from the San Francisco Zoo try to catch the animal. The team tranquilized and released the cougar into the Santa Cruz Mountains, AP reported. Yap said the episode underscored the importance of protecting and connecting the mountains that mountain lions use, and she urged protections to give the animals “connectivity on our roads, in our development,” so they can roam more freely.
Wilmers agreed, saying there will likely continue to be mountain lions that reach the city but arguing the longer-term goal should be enabling movement across the maze of development rather than repeated encounters with dense urban areas. “There’s always going to be mountain lions bumping into San Francisco. But right now, that’s all they can do,” Wilmers said. “We’d like to get to the place where they can find ways through this maze of urban and suburban development, to the next mountain range over,” AP reported.
In the wake of the commission’s vote, the threatened designation is expected to shape permitting and habitat-protection requirements in the specific regions covered by the listing, with state officials continuing to manage mountain lion conflicts through permitted, case-by-case actions.