Puma Profiles: P-55, Who Crossed the 101 Freeway and Came Back

P-55, a male first captured in April 2017, was one of the mountain lions tracked by the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains.

P-55. NPS.

He was caught and fitted with a GPS collar in April 2017 in the western end of the mountains, a few days before P-56 was caught at the same spot. The two were suspected to be siblings; DNA analysis was under way when his profile was written.

Where he roamed

P-55's home range was the northwestern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, generally west of Las Virgenes Road and mostly north of Mulholland. He did not stay out of sight:

• A camera trap in a Newbury Park backyard next to open space photographed him beside a hot tub, whose cover now had a new paw-sized hole in it.
• After that he crossed the 101 Freeway heading north, then crossed it again to come back south.
• One February he was in the news again, photographed peering through the sliding glass door of a house in Westlake Village.

Death

He died at an estimated 3 years old: longer than most males in the Santa Monica Mountains survive, but still young. His collar failed to send a mortality signal, and by the time a biologist found him his remains were too decomposed to show how he died. He had seemed healthy. Rodenticide poisoning or a fight with another male are possible causes, although the place where his body lay showed no sign of a struggle.

Sources

• National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, "Puma Profiles: P-55." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/puma-profiles-p-55.htm
• NPS news release on his crossing of the 101: https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/news/after-appearance-in-backyard-video-mountain-lion-crosses-101-freeway.htm