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Mountain Lion Struck And Killed On The 405 Freeway In The Sepulveda Pass

LOS ANGELES (CBLSLA) — A mountain lion was struck and killed on the 405 freeway in the Sepulveda Pass early Saturday morning, according to the National Park Service.

The mountain lion, known as P-61, was wearing a GPS collar that showed that the animal was hit between Bel Air Crest Road and the Sepulveda Blvd. underpass.

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(Courtesy National Parks Service)

The California Highway Patrol was initially alerted and moved P-61 out of traffic before City of Los Angeles Animal Control officers retrieved his body and the radio-collar.

The National Park Service says the four-year-old cat had crossed the freeway there just a couple of months ago, the first GPS-collared lion to do so successfully in the NPS' 17-years of studying mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains.

The NPS doesn't know why he tried to cross again, but believes that it's possible that a negative encounter with another mountain lion that apparently lives in the area could have caused him to head west.

This isn't the first time a mountain lion's been struck by a car in the Sepulveda Pass area. A young male was hit by a car there in 2011,  as was another male lion in 2009. 

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