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Female mountain lion 'P65' with her kittens
Female mountain lion study subject "P65" with her kittens at night. Researchers found that female lions were generally more active in the day and closer to sunrise, perhaps to avoid male lions, and therefore did not respond as strongly to human interaction. Researchers studying mountain lions in greater Los Angeles found they're proactively shifting their activity to avoid interacting with humans, becoming more nocturnal than lions who live in remote regions.
[Research supported by a U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and by a Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students program award.]
Learn more in the UC Davis news story Mountain lions coexist with outdoor recreationists by taking the night shift. (Date of image: Sept. 2020; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Dec. 6, 2024)
Credit: National Park Service
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