Mountain Lion P-18 Killed while Crossing 405

From a National Park Service Press Release:

On early Tuesday morning, P-18, one of the mountain lion kittens born in the Santa Monica Mountains in May, 2010 was hit and killed while attempting to cross I-405 just south of the Getty Center southbound onramp.

The 15-month-old mountain lion’s movement was being followed via radio telemetry equipment as part of a decade long National Park Service mountain lion study in the Santa Monica Mountains. The mountain lion had been tracked since it was three weeks old.

Earlier this summer, P-18 departed from his mother’s home range in Malibu Creek State Park and slowly began making his way east through the mountains. Male mountain lions have an extremely large range of movement, and often seek out open space away from other male mountain lions as they mature. There are two other male mountain lions with GPS collars in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is possible that P-18 was attempting to disperse out of the Santa Monica Mountains to find unoccupied open space. Previous mountain lion tracking has shown that individual male mountain lions frequently move throughout the entire Santa Monica Mountain range, from the 405 to Camarillo on a regular basis.

P-18 Shortly After Separating From His Mother - NPS Photograph

Freeways are a known significant barrier to wildlife crossings in the Los Angeles area and other urban centers around the country. Caltrans, in partnership with numerous local, state, federal and non-profit organizations is working to identify funding sources and suitable wildlife crossing locations along the 405 and highways 101 and 118 to construct wildlife crossings that would facilitate wildlife movement between the Santa Monica Mountains and other protected open space in the Santa Susana Mountains and Los Padres National Forest. These wildlife crossings would allow animals to move freely between large areas of protected parkland, and increase genetic diversity in the Santa Monica Mountains mountain lion population, a critical need for long term species survival.

“Investing in connected pieces of parkland and constructing wildlife crossings along major freeways around Los Angeles is essential for long term mountain lion survival in the Santa Monica Mountains,” said park superintendent Woody Smeck. “Mountain lions must be able to move freely between large parklands with suitable habitat throughout the course of their daily movements, as well as exchange genetic material to prevent inbreeding in specific parkland areas like the Santa Monica Mountains.”

The National Park Service began studying mountain lions in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 2002. A total of 21 mountain lions have been tracked via radio telemetry and GPS collars in that time. In addition to studying mountain lion movement, a genetics study is also ongoing to discover indications of possible inbreeding among the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains.

There has only been one documented successful mountain lion crossing in the study for either of the freeways that surround the Santa Monica Mountains; P-12 crossed highway 101 in early 2009, and has lived in the Santa Monica Mountains ever since. P-12 is father to the young mountain lion who was killed on Tuesday.

Children's Books Exempt from Safety Law

The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008, CPSIA, has been amended to exempt "ordinary" children's books from third party product testing. The measure, H.R. 2715, was signed into law by President Obama on August 12, after being passed almost unanimously by both houses of congress.

The 2008 measure was originally passed primarily to protect children under 12 from exposure to lead in products designed for their use. The printing and publishing industry argued that paper and board products used to make books have never contained lead. Books have never been regulated and have never posed a safety hazard according to the industry. Libraries had also awaited the outcome of the revision, since the original law cast a shadow on their ability to lend children's books. The new law applies the requirements only to products manufactured since the original law went into effect. This effectively eliminates libraries’ concerns about lending older books. A stay of enforcement of the 2008 law had been in effect and, barring congressional action, would have expired in December of this year.

The amended law excludes "ordinary" books from third party testing and certification procedures. But it leaves testing in place for "novelty" books that contain materials other than paper and board or are printed on materials other than paper and board. So books with plastic, toy-like elements will still require testing.