Mountain lions living in fragmented habitats near cities face road mortality, rodenticide poisoning, and territorial compression that cause significant individual welfare harms. Urban wildlife management shapes their wellbeing.
Mountain lion welfare near cities is shaped by rodenticide toxicity and road mortality. Anticoagulant rodenticides used extensively in urban and suburban environments accumulate in mountain lions through prey — causing severe immune dysfunction, notoedric mange, and prolonged painful death from haemorrhage or infection. The P-22 mountain lion, who lived his entire adult life within a small park surrounded by freeways, showed rodenticide exposure and eventually died from his injuries. Mange-affected mountain lions scratch until they develop deep skin infections, losing the ability to hunt effectively before dying. Banning second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides in mountain lion range areas is the highest-impact welfare intervention available. Wildlife crossing infrastructure — overpasses and underpasses on key freeways — reduces road mortality and allows territorial dispersal, dramatically improving individual welfare outcomes. California's Proposition 114 funded the Liberty Canyon wildlife crossing over US-101.