Newbury Park Man Finds Dead Mountain Lion Outside His Home

NEWBURY PARK, CA — A Newbury Park man recently found a dead mountain lion just beyond the fence of his yard, according to a report in The Acorn.

Robert Wachbrit saw the mountain lion just past his yard, and discovered that it was dead. Unlike many other mountain lions roaming the Santa Monica Mountains, the lion had no tracking collar.

Wachbrit called the National Park Service, and biologists arrived to put the lion in the body bag.

Ana Beatriz Cholo, a spokesperson for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, told The Acorn that the service is examining the body to determine its cause of death, and whether its blood may contain anticoagulant rodenticide, which have been responsible for several mountain lion and bobcats deaths over the past few years.

In June 2020, an adult female bobcat named B-372 was found dead under an oak tree in a residential neighborhood in Agoura Hills, and the park service later ruled that its death was due to rodenticides.

In January 2021, a bill co-authored by State Senator Henry Stern to restrict the use of certain rat poisons that have been linked to the deaths of mountain lions and other wildlife went into effect.
AB 1788, authored by Stern, Santa Monica Assemblyman Richard Bloom, and State Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, limits the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides statewide until the Department of Pesticide Regulations director certifies that specified measures have been taken to evaluate, restrict and use the poisons only when necessary, according to the governor's office.

The park service is tracking 11 mountain lions in the region, but Cholo said there may be more. Between May and August 2020, they uncovered five mountain dens containing a total of 13 mountain lion kittens. It was the first time in an 18-year-study of the species that so many dens have been found within such a short time.

On April 15, National Park Service biologists found three bobcat kittens and their mother living deep inside the cavity of a large oak tree, in an area of the mountains badly scarred by the Woolsey Fire. While the mother was out hunting, a team of biologists crawled down the tree to take the kitten, tag them, and return them.