STUDIO CITY/LAUREL CANYON—Security camera footage captured a mountain lion outside a home in Studio City on Saturday, August 8. Chad Landers, a Studio City resident, posted on his social media pages that he woke up in the middle of the night and checked his security cameras. He spotted a mountain lion, a raccoon, and two coyotes outside his residence, all within the same night.
Landers said he had never seen anything like it on his property before. The sighting took place on Wrightwood Place in Studio City, a hillside neighborhood near Laurel Canyon and Mulholland Drive. The Laurel Canyon area has a documented history of mountain lion activity, though it is unclear whether this specific animal has been previously tracked in the area.
This marks the third mountain lion sighting reported in Southern California within a matter of days. The other two occurred in Newbury Park and San Dimas.
Byron Weckworth of the Mountain Lion Foundation indicated the apparent rise in sightings is partly due to the increased use of home security cameras, which can automatically capture footage when motion is detected. He noted mountain lions are experiencing a reduction in their natural habitat, which occasionally pushes them into nearby hillside communities.
Weckworth noted that mountain lions generally do not want to be seen and that a sighting alone does not represent a threat to the public.
“Mountain lions are known by many names, including cougar, puma, catamount, painter, panther, and many more. They are the most wide-ranging cat species in the world and are found as far north as Canada and as far south as Chile. Solitary cats, mountain lions are highly adaptable to situations and environments, and this adaptability has enabled them to survive across much of their original range in the America’s, despite severe habitat loss and active threats,” reads the Mountain Lion Foundation website.
By Milan Manesh