Los Angeles, USA, and Mumbai, India, are both bustling megacities with populations exceeding 10 million, and they have become territories for large cat species.
The mountain lions in Los Angeles and the leopards in Mumbai breed, hunt, and maintain territories within urban areas. Long-term studies in both cities examine how these big cats navigate urban environments and how residents can coexist with them. The lessons learned from this research can be applied to many other places in the coming decades.
Leopards are increasingly common in urban Mumbai. (Photo: National Geographic)
“In the future, there will be more cities like this as urban areas encroach on natural habitats,” says biologist Audra Huffmeyer, who specializes in mountain lion research at the University of California, Los Angeles. “If we want to conserve large predators around the globe, we need to learn how to live alongside them.”
Twenty years ago, scientists in Los Angeles fitted the first male mountain lion named P1 with a tracking collar. P1’s territory spanned a wide area of the Santa Monica Mountains, a coastal mountain range located both within and adjacent to the city. According to Seth Riley, an ecologist with the National Park Service, P1 was typical in size for southern California, weighing about 150 pounds. Dominant male mountain lions like P1 do not tolerate other adult males in their territory. Using GPS tracking devices and camera traps, the research team monitored P1’s development over seven years, through multiple mating events and litters. Riley noted that 2009 was the last year they detected signs of P1.
Since then, Riley has fitted collars on around 100 mountain lions in Los Angeles, building a massive database on their behavior, which has expanded understanding of their territorial needs, diet, and the frequency of their encounters with humans.
The greatest threat to mountain lions is inbreeding. Living in small territories separated by highways has led some male mountain lions to mate with their daughters or granddaughters, resulting in genetic issues and deformities like kinked tails. Based on genetic analysis, Riley and colleagues found that P1 mated with his daughter P6, marking the first documented case of very close inbreeding.
In Mumbai, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, about 50 leopards have adapted to an environment that can only sustainably support around 20 individuals. However, these nocturnal cats also avoid being seen by humans. Vidya Athreya, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in India, recently fitted tracking collars on five leopards. Their primary habitat is around Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a protected area bordered on three sides by urban development, including neighborhoods that house 100,000 residents and nearly a dozen leopards.
Researchers are seeking answers to specific questions from the national park management, such as how leopards navigate busy roads nearby. To find out, they fitted a large male leopard named Maharaja with a collar. They discovered that he primarily moved at night and traveled over 60 kilometers in about a week from the Mumbai national park to another nearby national park. The leopard crossed state highways, using the same point to cross the road on three occasions. He also traversed railway tracks. The route chosen by Maharaja is near a new highway and a transportation corridor under construction. Researchers say understanding large cats’ crossing behavior will help authorities make decisions about where to build wildlife crossings to reduce accidents. In Los Angeles, long-term studies on mountain lions have highlighted the dangers of fragmented habitats, aiding in successful campaigns to build wildlife overpasses across the U.S. Route 101.
Leopards in Mumbai have adapted to hunting stray dogs rummaging through trash on the forest edge and rarely attack humans unless cornered or provoked. Similarly, Los Angeles has not recorded any fatalities due to mountain lions, except for an attack on a child in 2021. Both cities have recognized that capturing, killing, or relocating large cats is not a viable solution.
