Mountain lions in the greater Los Angeles region are consciously shifting their activity to avoid interacting with human residents, a new study has found.
Big cats living in areas with higher levels of human recreation may be more nocturnal than those inhabiting more remote areas, where felines tend to be active at dawn and dusk, according to the study, published on Friday in Biological Conservation .
Although mountain lions prefer to avoid people, the natural areas inhabited by the cats and other wildlife are also heavily trafficked by human recreationists, the study authors noted.
“People are increasingly enjoying recreating in nature, which is fantastic,” lead author Ellie Bolas, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California Davis, said in a statement .
“This flexibility we see in mountain lion activity is what allows us to share these natural areas together,” Bolas continued. “Mountain lions are doing the work so that coexistence can happen.”
To determine whether and how lions were adapting to human activity, the researchers monitored the movements of 22 big cats that were living in the Santa Monica Mountains and the surrounding area, between 2011 and 2018.