Two adorable mountain lion kittens born recently in Southern California are warming hearts with their cute hisses and big blue eyes.
The kittens, born sometime in December, were found in a well-hidden den in a remote area of the Santa Monica Mountains, the National Park Services announced Thursday in a news release. Both adorable fluff balls have been implanted with trackers so researchers can record their movements.
“We continue to see successful reproduction, which indicates that the quality of the natural habitat is high for such a relatively urbanized area,” said Jeff Sikich, a biologist for Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in a statement. “But these kittens have many challenges ahead of them, from evading other mountain lions, to crossing freeways, to dealing with exposure to rat poison."
The birth of the male and female lion cubs — who are affectionately named P-47 and P-46 — has prompted a lot of questions, specifically regarding parentage. The hope among scientists is that the kittens are not inbred, like previous litters born to the cubs' mother, P-19.
In addition to being generally unsavory, inbreeding poses a significant threat to the long-term survival of lions in the Santa Monica Mountains. Freeways isolate the large swath of land from other habitats, leaving the animals "essentially trapped" within one region, according to the statement.
Researchers have their fingers crossed that the father is P-45, a newly discovered male that has been known to hang back in the western end of the mountains.
The National Park service has been studying mountain lions in the region since 2002, in hopes of determining how the giant cats are able to survive in fragmented and urban environments, according to the statement.