A trio of blue-eyed mountain lion cubs suspected of being orphaned in Portola Valley have been making a splash in the local news after being rescued and taken to the Oakland Zoo, serving as a reminder of the many challenges these important native wildlife face.
Concerned Portola Valley residents spotted the cubs on January 27 and notified California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and Midpen staff who had been monitoring the area for the suspected orphaned cubs for two weeks. CDFW staff made the call to retrieve the cubs from the private residential property, with requested assistance from Midpen rangers and biologists, and transport them to the Oakland Zoo for assessment and care as they were unlikely to survive without their mother. Mountain lion cubs need 1.5 to 2 years with their mothers to learn how to survive in the wild.
“Midpen staff have been a great partner throughout this incident,” said CDFW Information Officer Krysten Kellum. “All three cubs were found to be dehydrated during the vet exam at Oakland Zoo. We estimate them to be just shy of three months of age.”
A mountain lion suspected to be the cubs’ mother was hit by a car on Portola Valley Road January 13. CDFW and Midpen staff searched for the mountain lion’s body after receiving reports from community members, however it had disappeared from the collision site and has not been recovered by CDFW, preventing DNA testing from being performed to confirm the relationship to the cubs.
To confirm the cubs are in fact orphaned, CDFW and Midpen staff are continuing to monitor the area for adult mountains lions using wildlife cameras deployed in Portola Valley and Midpen’s nearby Windy Hill Open Space Preserve.
While this incident did not occur within Midpen preserves, Midpen’s work to protect and connect undeveloped land in the greater Santa Cruz Mountains region supports far-ranging wildlife such as mountain lions in safely moving across the landscape, which is critical to their long-term survival. Mountain lions face many challenges linked to human development including genetic inbreeding, vehicle collisions and rat poisons in the food chain.
Midpen is currently working on multiple projects and research partnerships throughout its public open space preserves aimed at helping mountain lions and people safely coexist. Planning is well underway for wildlife and trail crossings at Highway 17 near Los Gatos, a known wildlife roadkill hot-spot, to allow mountain lions and other wildlife to safely access the large habitats they need to survive. In partnership with UC Santa Cruz Puma Project, Midpen is supporting a 5-year research project to learn more about how mountain lions use open space lands also frequently visited by people.
Mountain lions are a specially protected species in California, and the mountain lion population in the Santa Cruz Mountain region is currently being considered for listing as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.