Mountain lions hunt wisely.
Los Angeles is known as a very large urban area that benefits from wild surroundings that represent the home of a significant population of mountain lions.
Scientists from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the National Park Service discovered that mountain lions living in Santa Monica Mountains are accustomed to hunting quite close urban and residential communities.
More precisely, females were established as manifesting this type of behavior as they hunt most of the time within almost two kilometers of the populated areas. Experts learned that these big cats often prowl nearby the most famous neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles, including Calabasas, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and Bel Air.
Until now, scientists speculate that these females hunt around populated areas due to the fact that they can hardly bump into males around these places. Male lions are known for the aggressive behavior because they are very territorial usually killing other mountain lions and their offspring.
If a male encounters a female with cubs, the male lion might be tempted to kill the offspring so that he can later mate with the female. Their favorite prey consists of mule deer. Males usually prowl in wooded areas close to water waiting for deer to come to drink.
But females often hunt the deer which are attracted by the watered lawns around the crowded communities of Southern California. Despite the fact that female mountain lions come quite close to the urban areas, residents are not really concerned about their presence because only two of 420 kills recorded by the team of researchers were made inside a populated area.
Based on these findings, scientists came to the conclusion that females have a wise method of hunting, meaning that they wait for deer to return from the urban areas to hunt them on the road back. This way, female lions avoid human encounters and have a high rate of hunting efficiency.
The UCLA statistics have shown that Los Angeles is one of the two top cities in the world where big cats live around urban areas. Unfortunately, this situation has a severe impact on mountain lions because they have to deal with various threats such as the effects of rat poison, traffic, habitat loss, pollution, and human ignorance as well.
Image Source:Feral Front
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