A Southern California mountain lion that crossed freeways dozens of times, evading potentially deadly traffic, has died after burning its paws during a wildfire, officials said on Friday.
The 4-year-old mountain lion, which biologists had tracked with a GPS collar and had named P-64, was roaming in the Simi Hills, northwest of Los Angeles, when the fire broke out nearby, said Jeff Sikich, a biologist for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. It apparently crossed an area burned by the Woolsey Fire, which erupted on Nov. 8 and scorched 97,000 acres (39,000 hectares) before being fully contained nearly two weeks later.
Biologists later followed P-64's movements over several miles before it hunkered down. On Dec. 3, Sikich discovered P-64's remains, paws burned, near the cat's last known GPS location.