One, a mountain lion often seen patrolling the mountains in Orange County, died last week after being hit by a vehicle near Santiago Canyon Road.
The cougar “was somewhat famous for its apparent laissez-faire behavior toward people at times, often paying little attention to hikers or other people it might encounter,” the UC Davis California Mountain Lion Project said.
The school, which reported his death on Friday, had been studying Uno since 2021.
“He was crossing Santiago Canyon Road, a road in Orange County that he has successfully crossed many times, but on this occasion he was unable to cross safely,” Mountain Lion Project said on Instagram.
“Valiant efforts were made to save his life… but he succumbed to serious head and chest injuries before any major treatment could be initiated.”
The cougar, identified by the study as F312, was tagged by researchers in 2021 when it was approximately 2 years old.
In the years that followed, she was captured many times by wildlife cameras and photographers, who nicknamed her “Uno” due to an eye injury she had suffered.
Last summer, wildlife photographer Mark Girardeau captured images of Uno as she walked past him on a hiking trail, coming within a few feet of Girardeau.
In the video, Uno can be seen peeking over the top of a hill in Girardeau before walking down the hill.
“Oh shit, she's coming at me,” Girardeau says in the video.
The lion walks down the hill, seemingly indifferent, then begins to trot past Girardeau.
During his time under observation, Uno probably identified more than once; he produced at least one litter, with four kittens.
But the kittens did not survive long enough to leave their mother, the Mountain Lion Project said. Two kittens were hit by cars, one died from an illness and the other “just disappeared.”
One is just the latest mountain lion killed on Southern California roads.
Vehicles pose a significant threat to big cats. Between 2015 and 2022, 535 mountain lions died on California roads, according to a UC Davis study.
“The fencing projects our team has helped design in the area have dramatically reduced roadside deaths of mountain lions and other wildlife,” the Mountain Lion Project said, “but as this shows us, these improvements are necessary in many more places.”
