Mountain lion struck and killed on freeway ramp

By KCAL/KCBS Staff

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    BEL AIR, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A mountain lion was struck and killed early Thursday morning on the 405 freeway in the Sepulveda Pass.

The collision occurred at about 1:15 a.m. on the southbound 405 freeway near Getty Center Drive in Bel Air, according to California Highway Patrol.

That portion of the 405 freeway is surrounded by steep, lush hillsides, with mountain lions living all around.

The circumstances of the collision were unclear. There was no immediate word on whether the mountain lion was one of those being tracked by the National Parks Service biologists.

Last month, a tracked mountain lion, P-104, was also struck and killed by a vehicle on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

This comes just a day before a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, Earth Day, for a new $87 million wildlife crossing in Agoura Hills designed to avoid such tragedies.

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, the world’s largest when it is complete, will span all ten lanes of the 101 freeway at Liberty Canyon Road. The crossing will be 165-foot-wide and sit 10 feet above the freeway.

It will connect the Santa Monica Mountains with the Simi Hills, providing a corridor for mountain lions and other animals who have faced habitat loss and isolation, trapped by freeways and urbanization. Several studies have found that mountain lion populations in Southern California are at risk of extinction.

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