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Three mountain - king of beasts cub born latterly in Southern California have been identified as inbred , sum to a growing tilt of inbreeding cases amongst these animals as a result of habitat fragmentation in this realm , allot to a statement from the National Park Service .
The three cubs — two females and one male — were born last calendar month in the Santa Monica Mountains outside Los Angeles . investigator at the University of California , Los Angeles , conducted preliminary DNA mental test on all three of the sonny and their parent to identify their familial makeup , and found that the young carnivore ' don was also the forefather of their female parent . [ World ’s Cutest Baby Wild Animals ]
P-32, shown here, is one of three mountain lion kittens born recently in the Santa Monica Mountains that are the result of first-order inbreeding.
This is the third of six mess - lion litters that the investigator have identified as inbred over the past X or so , theLos Angeles Times reportedyesterday ( Jan. 9 ) .
" regrettably , this bedding material of kittens is the latest model of first - social club inbreeding , in which a father mates with his materialization , " Seth Riley , an urban wildlife expert at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area , state in a program line . " Allowing safe transit from the Simi Hills into the Santa Monica Mountains is our best stab at address the lack of genic variety in the local universe . "
The main rootage of home ground atomisation in the area is U.S. Route 101 , a major freeway that runs through the Santa Monica Mountains . Last October , an adultmountain lion(also called a cougar ) was walk out and killed by a elevator car while trying to cross the road , attest the dangers the route poses to the cats as they seek to navigate the region .
The National Park Service has purpose several different solution to help make a safe corridor for the cats across the freeway over the years , such as building wildlife flyover , which have not yet been built . Most recently , the NPS proposed a $ 10 million underpass arrangement that would create safe corridor underneath the thruway , but the authority has yet to secure funding for the project .
The new kittens come along healthy , grant to the National Park Service . Still , inbreeding can conduce to health trouble later in life , and leads to overall abject genetic diversity in fauna population . This can ultimately weaken a population ’s resilience against environmental alteration and other stressors , since individual within a population start to share lapping vulnerabilities .
Roughly 4,000 to 6,000 mountain Leo currently roam throughout California , according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife , and they increasingly present problems associated with habitat fragmentation across the state as a result of increased maturation of innate areas .
