Nice Kitty! Meet LA's New Big Cat With Big Attitude

MALIBU, CA — She has bright green eyes and a knack for taking glamour shots (just look at those cheekbones!). A new mountain lion was captured, collared and photographed in the Woolsey Fire burn area within the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area announced this week

P-80 is the latest cat to join their 18-year mountain lion study. Soon after she was captured, she left the Woolsey Fire burn perimeter, Ranger Ana Beatriz said.

"It will be really interesting to learn where her home range is and who she may be related to," Beatriz said.

P-80 is between 5 and 6 years old, and weighs 82 pounds. She appears to have lactated in the past, Beatriz said, which means she likely has had a previous litter.

The mountain lion is now wearing a fancy GPS radio collar that will provide SMMNRA researchers with daily location information.

The National Park Service has monitored more than 75 mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported. Biologists are studying how the pumas live in an urbanized landscape that's increasingly broken up by new roads and development.

Finding P-80 was great news for the cats and the scientists who study them, especially after researchers said two mountain lions, P-64 and P-74, were most likely killed as a result the Woolsey Fire.

P-64, who was dubbed the "Culvert Cat" for repeatedly using a culvert to cross the Ventura (101) Freeway near Liberty Canyon, was found dead in December by a biologist tracking his movements using information from the lion's GPS collar.

The mountain lion's paws were "visibly burned," but his cause of death is still unknown, NPS officials said.

P-74, a young mountain lion who was still travelling with his mother, was likely killed in the Woolsey Fire after he disappeared without a trace on Nov. 9, 2018, a day after the fire broke out.