Two mountain lion kittens killed on roads near Malibu Play

A mountain lion kitten was struck and killed by a vehicle on Las Virgenes Road, between Malibu Canyon and Calabasas. Its body was discovered two weeks ago Monday on the straightaways north of Mulholland.

The location was just over a ridge and about two miles away from the new Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 freeway, which will be finished in eight months.

Two days later, another mountain lion kitten was killed — that one on Mulholland Highway east of the 405 freeway in the hills above Bel Air.

Several mountain lions have been killed on Las Virgenes Road, a busy wildlife corridor in the upper flat part of Malibu Canyon.

Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation knows the road well.

"As somebody who has walked that road quite a bit over the decade, I have found carcasses of animals large and small," Pratt said. "It's a real busy road and people are driving way past the speed limit. We've tackled the biggest obstacle to connectivity — the Wallis Annenberg over the 101 — about to open. But these other areas need connectivity too. Las Virgenes is a big area of interest to scientists. We need to get a fix on that road, not in one place, but in several places."

Asked whether the fix would be fencing or some other crossing, Pratt said there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

"With the Wallis Annenberg overcrossing, we tackled one of the biggest roads you could imagine by putting in a structure. That requires a big solution," she said. "But on Las Virgenes Road, it could be anything from fencing to culvert retrofits where we are opening up areas so there's more space to cross. It could be some underpasses or under structures. We need to really get out there and evaluate what would work for the wildlife and what would work on the engineering side."

Pratt said researchers expect to learn a lot about wildlife behavior from the Annenberg crossing.

"Birds are already crossing the 101 freeway over the bridge," she said. "We have almost three decades of research from the National Park Service — GPS points and tracking, seeing how animals behave in that area. It will be really interesting to see how the animals respond to the Annenberg Crossing."

She said National Park Service cameras are tracking animals throughout the mountains, including at a couple of culverts near the recent crash scene.

"It's gonna be really exciting, when we follow the science and see what the changes in behavior are once the big wildlife crossing is open," she said.

Pratt said there are no specific plans yet for Las Virgenes Road, but it is on the list of areas being looked at as wildlife crossings radiate out from the Annenberg project.

"The first step is getting real comprehensive studies of animal behavior out there after the new crossing opens — more GPS data, more camera traps, seeing where the animals are going and looking at places where we could make a difference for the wildlife," she said.

The male mountain lion killed on Las Virgenes Road was number 56 in the western L.A. County area to be killed by vehicles over the past decades that wildlife researchers have been keeping count.