LOS ANGELES (AP) — A young mountain lion that had just been added to a study of Southern California cougars was struck by a vehicle and killed on Pacific Coast Highway.
The National Park Service says the subadult male dubbed P-104 was hit Wednesday morning, just two weeks after he was captured and fitted with a GPS radio collar in the western portion of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Cougars in the coastal range west of Los Angeles have been studied for 20 years by biologists to determine how they survive in the fragmented and urbanized habitat.
P-104 was the 25th mountain lion to be killed by a vehicle since the study began in 2002.
