Mountain lions in Southern California will have a safer place to roam by 2023 thanks to an $87 million bridge being designed northwest of Los Angeles and spread out above the busy 101 Highway.
California is the only state in the country where shooting the creatures for sport is banned. But a March study published in the journal Ecological Applications suggested mountain lions could be extinct within 50 years if changes to their environment don’t happen.
"Animals were able to move around through different parts of the mountains until humans cut them off with giant roads,” said Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation. “GPS tracking shows that the animals are largely isolated in their own small areas, unable to mingle. Segmentation impacts animals both large and small: lizards and birds up to mountain lions.”
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An amateur photographer captured more than he bargained for - when he snapped what could be a large wild cat at a nature reserve.
John Pearson had been taking sunrise snaps at St Aidan's Nature Reserve at Allerton Bywater on Saturday when a strange movement caught his eye in the distance.
So the 46-year-old quickly tried to focus in on the mystery creature and was shocked by what he saw.
The fibre optic engineer, who lives at Rothwell, said: "It was about 5.30am, I like getting there early doors, I do it regularly getting pictures of the sunrise.
"I was roughly about 200 metres away and I never thought it was a cat, I looked through my lens and thought it was a dog at first because it was about that size.
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An Estero man thinks a panther snatched his missing cat straight from his back lanai.
A trail of blood and fur led to his ripped lanai screen in the back of his house. He told his neighbors he thinks it happened Wednesday morning and hasn't seen his cat since.
His Bella Terra neighbors say they have seen an uptick in panther sightings in the past few months.
Now, his neighbors are worried this is only the beginning.
"What happened to these people is awful, and I just think that it's a big tragedy waiting to happen in a community filled with animals and children," said his next door neighbor Tamara Trovato.
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A couple have made the ultimate spot after they caught the world's rarest leopard on camera - in astonishing never before seen photos.
The rare strawberry leopard - or erythristic species - was snapped by a motion triggered camera pinned to a tree in Thaba Tholo Wilderness Reserve in South Africa.
Reserve owner Alan Watson, 45, and his Irish wife Lynsey, 41, had seen the elusive pink hued species skulking around the reserve but had never been able to catch it on film.
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Traditional Asian medicine is driving the growing international trade in big cat products and leading to the mistreatment of thousands of animals, according to a recent report.
Bones, blood, and other body parts of big cats are made into products such as balms, capsules, gels, and wines that practitioners of traditional Asian medicine believe to be able to cure ailments ranging from arthritis to meningitis, though in fact they’ve been found to have no provable health benefits. Even before the cats are killed, however, they’re treated more like products than living, breathing creatures, according to the report, released last month by the London-based NGO World Animal Protection.
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The Florida panther is an endangered species with only between 120 to 230 adults in existence
Two panthers pace a sandy path, looking lithe and light on their feet. A younger cat staggers after them like a drunkard, lurching in and out of the undergrowth and falling several times.
Wildlife officials fear that the stumbling cat, caught on camera, may have a mysterious neurological disorder that appears to have affected panthers in several counties of Florida, where the big cats are a state symbol.
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A man who didn't believe Devon big cat sightings is now convinced they are true after watching and photographing what he says was a puma on an isolated clifftop location.
Holidaymaker Max Tennant was shocked when he spotted the 'massive' reddish brown creature 100 metres ahead of him strolling up and down. He watched it for 30 seconds on the cliffs above Lee Bay, near Woolacombe in North Devon on Tuesday afternoon, August 20 and took a series of blurry pictures on his mobile phone before his dogs disturbed the creature.
It is the latest in a spate of big cat sightings across Devon. Earlier this month, a man was left shocked after seeing what he described as a 'Cranbrook Panther' wandering through a field.
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