"SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- From an urban puma's perspective, the news of late from greater Los Angeles has been mixed."

"On the positive front, a small population of mountain lions is surviving in the relatively compact confines of the Santa Monica Mountains, where deer are plentiful and cougars have found mates and reproduced. One healthy male mountain lion has made Griffith Park, in the range's eastern reaches, his domain and dinette for nearly two years.

On the flip side, a cougar that would have brought new genetic material managed to cross the 101 Freeway last October but encountered a 10-foot retaining wall and was struck and killed by a motorist. In the latest sobering revelation, the National Park Service said this week that three mountain lion kittens born in the Santa Monica Mountains last month appear to be the result of inbreeding."

Martha Groves reports for the Los Angeles Times January 9, 2014. [2]