A vision to provide safe passage for mountain lions above 10 lanes of whizzing traffic near Los Angeles faced a foe: time. Genetically isolated pumas hemmed in by the 101 Freeway were showing birth defects and needed an outlet fast. A massive philanthropic challenge grant allowed the $92-million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing to advance rapidly...
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing now spans the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, but weather issues have pushed completion to sometime in 2026. • Builders plan to cover the crossing with “engineered” soil inoculated with local microbes early next year so more than 5,000 native shrubs and wildflowers can be planted. • But the crossing...
AGOURA HILLS, Calif. — The 10-lane freeway that slices through this part of Southern California is one of the busiest in the country, ushering more than 300,000 cars across the greater Los Angeles area every day. For drivers, it’s a nightmare: This stretch of Highway 101 is known as the “highway from hell,” the infamous host of the nation’s worst...
To protect the movement of wildlife impeded by busy roadways, a series of manmade overpasses and underpasses throughout the United States helps animals big and small safely get across the street, preventing collisions and saving lives. About 1,500 of these structures already have been built. Correspondent Conor Knighton looks at how they have protected genetic...
It sounds like the plot of a Disney movie: a mountain lion prevented from finding a mate because he’s trapped by L.A. freeways becomes famous and inspires the construction of the world’s largest wildlife overpass. But it really happened. “He was surviving in a space much, much smaller than any male mountain lion ever had...
The citizens of Los Angeles have not forgotten about P-22, the furtively majestic mountain lion of Griffith Park, who died a week before Christmas, at the age of about twelve. A handsome beast with amber eyes and a white muzzle, P-22 was probably born in the Santa Monica Mountains, the coastal range west of L.A....
It was just after midnight on April 21st when the radio collar of P-97, an eighteen-month-old mountain lion, sent its last signal. P-97 had only recently separated from his mother, setting out east in the Santa Monica Mountains in search of territory to call his own. (The “P” stands for puma; the number, 97, marks...
AGOURA HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Construction has begun on what is billed as the world’s largest wildlife crossing for mountain lions and other animals caught in Southern California’s urban sprawl. Officials held a ceremony Friday to mark the start of construction of a $90 million bridge over a freeway and feeder road that is about...
Growing up, Jonathan Martinez never dreamed about being an artist, let alone one who focuses exclusively on endangered wildlife. But not only is wildlife art how this 29-year-old makes his living, it’s also how the Santa Ana resident — who didn’t see many animals in his childhood — is changing lives. His art definitely is...
