Mountain lions are expanding into suburban areas across the American West as human development encroaches on their habitat, creating new coexistence challenges.
Mountain lions in fragmented urban-adjacent habitats experience chronic stress from proximity to human development, roads, and artificial light. Mange from anticoagulant rodenticide exposure has caused disfiguring disease in multiple California populations. Individuals dispersing from natal territories face high mortality crossing roads and entering suburban areas. Trophy hunting of dispersing males disrupts population structure and increases human-lion conflict. Non-lethal coexistence tools including livestock guarding dogs, secure enclosures, and motion-activated deterrents reduce conflict without harming individual lions.