Mountain lion P3 sets out after Glass fire

Video and story courtesy @SonomaCountyParks.

Sound on! From the sound of it, this female mountain lion is looking for company, and she's a newcomer of sorts to this regional park property (not yet open to the public). P3, as she is known, received an ear tag in 2016 as a 10-month-old kitten near where she was born in Glen Ellen, as part of Audubon Canyon Ranch's Living with Lions project. As an adult, she was first spotted on our wildlife cameras in the Hood Mountain Regional Park area, raising two litters of kittens prior to the September 2020 Glass Fire. She made it through OK, as we saw her on camera once shortly after the fire, however, we did not gather additional footage of her in the area in the months that followed.

Fast forward to December 2020 when a female lion with an ear tag showed up on our cameras at a property more than 20 miles away. At that time, we were unable to read her ear tag clearly, but we have since positively identified this female as the very same P3. She has opted to put down roots in another one of our parks and in doing so has given us a glimpse into how some wildlife has responded to fire in the region.

Sonoma County Regional Parks works in collaboration with the Living with Lions project by sharing data and providing information that may help facilitate research.

To date, four mountain lions have been collared on regional parks lands. The data gained from tracking their movements helps us greater understand how lions utilize our park lands, the importance of intact parkland and open space to serve as wildlife corridors and how our lands can provide quality habitat to these iconic animals.