Mountain lions increasingly navigate suburban and urban environments, requiring evidence-based coexistence programs that address public safety while protecting individual lions.
Urban mountain lions face unique welfare challenges: navigating freeway barriers that electrocute lions attempting to cross, consuming prey that may carry anticoagulant rodenticides causing internal hemorrhage, and facing lethal removal when they enter human-occupied structures. Individual welfare depends heavily on whether wildlife authorities deploy non-lethal deterrents before resorting to removal. GPS monitoring programs that track individual lion movement and health status enable early intervention when lions enter conflict situations.