A mountain lion was struck and killed by a car on the Ortega Highway in Orange County, prompting wildlife experts to call for increased safety measures to keep Southern California animals safe.
Mountain lion F390, which UC Davis was tracking, was struck and killed on Highway 74 on Sept. 4 in San Juan Capistrano. They say that the three-year-old big cat was part of a California study on the species’ protection, and that she recently gave birth to two kittens.
Dr. Winston Vickers, a research veterinarian with the university, said that the cats are big enough that they’re almost the same size as their mother.
“They are over a year old; they should be able to make it on their own,” Vickers said.
He’s also part of the California Carnivore Project, which monitored the mountain lion’s movements, along with four other big cats in Southern California. He said that since last summer, F390 made at least 33 successful crossings over the Ortega Highway, which crosses into Riverside County.
Vickers said that several mountain lions have now been killed while running across the highway, and that some lions occasionally use underground drainage culverts to cross underneath the busy road. Despite access to those alternate routes, he said that additional fencing is truly what’s needed to prevent animal deaths.
“We have found that if animals approach a highway, like in between two nice structures, and they want to go across the highway, they’re going to take the shortest route,” Vickers said. “So, a key thing in an area like this, where she was hit, is fencing to funnel the animals to the safe structures.”
That idea is the basis for a massive wildlife crossing being constructed over the 101 Freeway.
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing
Years of construction will finally come to fruition in 2026, when the much-anticipated Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing opens to wildlife in Agoura Hills. All 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway are already covered by the large structure, which will give wildlife an easier path to cross the busy thoroughfare without running through traffic.
The project began back in 2022, the same year that famed Los Angeles mountain lion P-22 was euthanized for a series of health complications that wildlife experts suggested came from being hit by a car.
The wildlife crossing was named after the Annenberg Foundation’s founder and billionaire philanthropist, Wallis Annenberg, who died earlier in 2025. Her foundation was a major financial backer of the project, which is a collaborative effort between Caltrans, the National Park Service, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy/Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains and the National Wildlife Federation.
Mountain lions struck on SoCal roads
Along with P-22, there have been several instances of mountain lions being struck by cars on Southern California roads in recent years.