Demography, genetics and connectivity raise extinction risk for Los Angeles pumas

This population-viability analysis integrated demographic data, genetic measures and landscape connectivity for the small puma population isolated in the Santa Monica Mountains within metropolitan Los Angeles. The authors modelled how low survival from vehicle strikes, rodenticide exposure and intraspecific killing combined with the loss of gene flow across freeways to elevate extinction probability over coming decades. The study quantified the danger of genetic isolation for a large carnivore embedded in a megacity and made explicit the conservation value of restoring connectivity, providing key scientific justification for the wildlife crossing later built over a major freeway to reconnect the population.