A young mountain lion was found dead in Valencia, most likely killed by massive injuries sustained from a vehicle collision, according to officials with the National Parks Services (NPS).

In a statement Wednesday, biologists from the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA), a unit of NPS, found the body of the young cat along San Francisquito Creek in Valencia.

The young cat, labeled ‘P-78’ by NPS, had a broken front left leg and appeared to have been hit by a car. His body was submitted to the California Animal Health & Food Safety (CAHFS) Lab in San Bernardino for a necropsy and testing.

The mountain lion also tested positive to five anticoagulant rodenticide compounds and bromethalin; commonly used as rodent poison. 

Prior to his death, P-78 appeared to have been reportedly doing well, with his last GPS collar replacement occurring in Nov. 2020 in the eastern Santa Susana mountains at Towsley Canyon.

On Dec. 26, 2020, NPS biologists received a mortality signal from P-78’s radio collar, acknowledging a consistent living situation in the Santa Susana Mountains and a tendency for crossing the I-5 Fwy.

P-78 was initially captured in the central Santa Monica mountains as a sub-adult in December of 2019. P-78 would travel west and cross the 101 Freeway at the Conejo Grade, spend some time in Wildwood, then cross the Interstate Highway 23 and the 118.

NPS officials say he had been living in the eastern Santa Susana mountains before his death. He had reportedly crossed beneath the I-5 along the Santa Clara River, and even journeyed his way up into the Angeles National Forest before coming back to the Santa Susana mountains.

P-78 is the 23rd mountain lion and the seventh radio-collared animal to die from road mortality in the study area since 2002, according to NPS officials.

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