Puma Profiles: P-19, the Santa Monica Mountains' Oldest Mountain Lion Mother

P-19 was captured and fitted with a collar in early 2012. She is the longest-surviving of the litter P-12 fathered with P-13, and she became the study's second known case of first-order inbreeding — the first was P-1 mating with his daughter P-6.

Five litters

The third litter mattered. It was her first not fathered by her own father. Preliminary DNA analysis shows P-45 came from north of the 101 Freeway, so these kittens were the first time he passed his genes into the genetically isolated population of the Santa Monica Mountains. The family featured in a 2017 New Yorker story, "Lions of Los Angeles."

The fourth litter's father is suspected to be P-56. Genetic testing is needed to confirm it, but the two spent time together 90 days before the birth — a mountain lion's gestation period. Females can, however, mate with more than one male during an estrus cycle, the recurring period when many mammals are receptive and fertile.

The fifth litter was found when P-19 was 10 years old. Mother mountain lions usually raise their young for about a year and a half, so she probably had little break from raising kittens before becoming pregnant again.

What her life shows

Following one animal for its whole life is one of the strengths of a long-term study, and it gives unusual insight into what threatens mountain lions' survival in the area. P-19 is the oldest mountain lion mother in the study.

Of the known kittens from her first three litters, five have died — P-23, P-32, P-33, P-34 and P-47 — and two, P-24 and P-46, were never given GPS collars.

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Sources

• National Park Service, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Puma Profiles: P-19.