Puma Profiles: P-91, an Orphaned Kitten from the Simi Hills

P-91 and her brother P-92 in their den. NPS.

Found the day their mother died

On July 7, P-67's kittens — female P-91 and male P-92 — were found in a den in the Simi Hills, only the second litter ever found there. The same day, P-67 was found dead.

• Fostering failed: researchers tried to place the kittens with P-65, without success.
• A new home: the orphans are being raised at the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. Staff say they have distinct personalities: P-91 is bolder, P-92 laid-back.

"They are inseparable and a great comfort to each other." — Linda Searles, sanctuary director

Searles added: "It's too bad they couldn't live in the wild, but we're happy that they can give our old guy companionship." She said the lions will be ambassadors for the Santa Monica Mountains population and their species.

Family

• Father: probably P-78, who traveled with P-67 on several days. He didn't stay long in the Simi Hills and soon crossed north into the Santa Susana Mountains and beyond.
• Mother: P-67 was tagged as a kitten in 2018 in the Simi Hills. Her mother is P-62; her siblings were P-66, P-68 and P-69.

What killed P-67

The necropsy found:

• no food in her stomach, and she was relatively thin;
• necrotizing enteritis, an intestinal disease;
• exposure to five anticoagulant compounds and to bromethalin — not an anticoagulant, but a highly potent rodenticide that kills a rodent in a single feeding.

The presumed cause of death was septicemia, possibly secondary to enteritis.

A record summer for kittens

• 13 kittens were born to five mothers between May and August 2020 — the most found in so short a time in the long-term study.
• Researchers have marked 21 litters at den sites in all.
• The previous record was four dens in a year (over 10 months in 2015).
• Three more litters were found only after the kittens were older — at least 6 months — and had left the den.

← P-90 · All puma profiles · P-92 →

Sources

Based on "Puma Profiles: P-91," Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.