There’s a new resident of the Santa Monica Mountains
— a 4-week-old female mountain lion kitten that National Park Service
officials said today is believed to be the result of inbreeding among the
isolated population of lions.
NPS officials, who have been tracking lions in the Santa Monica
Mountains for 15 years, identified the kitten’s mother as a lion known as P-23,
and its father is believed to be P-23’s half-brother, known as P-30. Genetic
testing still needs to be done on the kitten to confirm the father.
