JUNE 25,
2019
by Louis
Sahagun
As the
mountain lions of Southern California approach what some experts call an
"extinction vortex," environmentalists are demanding that state
officials grant the big cats protective status—a move that could potentially
ban development on thousands of acres of prime real estate.
Mountain
lions as a species are not threatened in California, but a petition submitted
Tuesday to the state Fish and Game Commission argues that six isolated and
genetically distinct cougar clans from Santa Cruz to the U.S.-Mexico border
comprise a subpopulation that is threatened by extinction.
The
petition, which is co-sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity and the
nonprofit Mountain Lion Foundation, argues that Central and Southern
California mountain
lions comprise an "evolutionarily significant unit"
that should be declared threatened under the state Endangered Species Act.
Recent
scientific studies suggest there's an almost 1 in 4 chance that Southern
California mountain lions
could become extinct in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains within 50
years.
"This
petition will be controversial," said Justin Dellinger, senior
environmental scientist with the Wildlife Investigations Laboratory at the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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