A mountain lion known as Uno because of an injured right eye has died after being struck by a car late Thursday, Jan. 18.
For two years, UC Davis researchers followed F312’s movement with a collar around her neck, as the lean predator navigated the wilderness areas, hiking trails and roadways of south Orange County, where she died.
“She’s pretty much an icon, this mountain lion with an injured eye who gets around,” said Orange County Outdoors wildlife photographer Mark Girardeau, who twice had encounters in the wild with Uno, both times captured on videos that went viral, adding to the big cat’s fame.
Girardeau was just leaving the area Thursday evening after checking remote cameras he uses to document Uno and other wildlife, when he said he got a call that the mountain lion had been struck near Cook’s Corner on Santiago Canyon Road.
She died from massive head and chest injuries before significant treatment could be started, said Winston Vickers, associate veterinarian at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, which also tracks animals locally.
“It’s very disappointing, we had concerns that it could happen because she, like any of the animals in that part of the county, had to cross roads pretty frequently,” he said. “It was always a concern and I think her luck just ran out.”
The most common cause of death for local mountain lions in the area has been being killed while crossing roads and highways, Vickers said.
There have been 140 known fatalities since 1995, 77 from vehicles, in the Santa Ana mountain range, according to UC Davis data. From 2005 to present, there have been 43 deaths from vehicles.
A 2015 study found 46% of all mortalities of collared mountain lions in the Santa Ana Range were from being struck.
Those are just the reported incidents – more animals are hit and die off the roadway undetected, Vickers noted.
Girardeau, who has teamed up with UC Davis since 2015 to share videos, had nicknamed the mountain lion he…
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