This post was initially included on High Country News.
On Nov. 8, 2018, malfunctioning electrical devices in California’s Woolsey Valley triggered a wildfire that covered the Santa Monica Mountains. The Woolsey Fire burnt through almost 100,000 acres of arrive at the western edge of the higher Los Angeles location, damaging over 1,600 structures and eliminating 3 individuals.
This mountainous landscape is the house area of LA’s famous mountain lions, which have actually hung on here regardless of urbanization and environment fragmentation. The fire got rid of half of their staying environment, consisting of 88% of the nationwide park land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Rachel Blakey, now a teacher at Cal Poly Pomona, resided in LA at the time of the fire and started to question how the lions were impacted.
” I was an actually huge fan of the LA mountain lions, as a lot of Angelenos are,” Blakey stated. “And I believed, my goodness, what’s occurred? How has this wildfire affected them, when they currently have this type of hemmed-in location?”
The outcomes of Blakey and her co-authors’ research study were released in Current Biology on Oct.20 Utilizing GPS tracking to map the lions’ journeys and accelerometer information to tape-record their activity, she and her partners compared the animals’ habits throughout the 15 months prior to and after the fire.
Two lions passed away in the fire, however much more had a hard time to make it through in the years that followed. Blakey explained the charred landscape as a “moonscape” without the plants and cover that the felines require to assail their favored victim, mule deer. The lions prevented the burned locations and took higher dangers searching for much better environment, crossing hectic highways.