Mountain lion hit and killed by driver on busy California freeway, officials say

A driver struck and killed a mountain lion on a California freeway, officials said.

The animal came head-to-head with a driver on U.S. 101 in Calabasas on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol said in a Facebook post.

“It’s always unfortunate when this happens,” CHP said in the post.

Only two “megacities” in the world — Los Angeles and Mumbai — have big cats within city limits, according to the National Park Service.

“In a place more often associated with freeways and traffic, the fact that the city can support such large-ranging animals is a testament to the quality of open space and the habitat connectivity that still remains,” the park service said on its website.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area does not know yet if the mountain lion that was killed is part of its study, ranger Ana Beatriz said in a Facebook post Wednesday. The National Park Service has studied how mountain lions survive in the area since 2002.

“We will pick up its carcass from a local animal shelter on Friday and it will then undergo a full necropsy,” Beatriz wrote. “We’ll keep you posted.”

The mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains is “stable, with healthy rates of survival and reproduction,” according to the National Park Service.

“The long-term survival of mountain lions in this region, however, is threatened by a number of factors, none more significant than the loss and fragmentation of habitat by roads and development,” the park service said. “This leads not only to deaths from vehicle collisions, but also multiple cases of first-order inbreeding because animals are not able to disperse in and out of the area.”