![\"Quinton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIJ-L-MOUNTAIN-LIONS-0420-3.jpeg\")
Quinton Martins, the founder of the Living With Lions research project, looks for tracks while following a mountain lion in the hills above Sonoma Valley in 2025. (John Burgess\/The Press Democrat)<\/p>\nA wildlife conservation group has captured its first mountain lion in Marin as part of an expanded research project to learn how the big cats are faring in the North Bay.<\/p>\n
The 8-year-old, 140-pound male, named P-60, was caught in the Lagunitas area last month. Researchers with the Living with Lions program targeted the beast after property owners reported that it killed two of their goats.<\/p>\n
Using the remains as bait, a crew lured the mountain lion into a cage, tranquilized it, took blood samples, put a GPS collar around its neck and set it free, tracking its whereabouts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very large lion, and he\u2019s been doing great,\u201d said Tom Gardali, chief executive director of All Hands Ecology, formerly Audubon Canyon Ranch. The nonprofit collaborates on the project with True Wild Conservation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can look on my computer and see where he\u2019s been. He seems to be successfully moving through the landscape, including feeding,\u201d Gardali said.<\/p>\n
The group has been capturing and tracking mountain lions through GPS collars and a network of trail cameras in Sonoma County for the past decade. It recently obtained a permit from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to conduct its research in Marin County.<\/p>\n
The captured cats are assessed for sex, age, weight and overall health before being released. Blood samples are collected for genetic and disease monitoring. Findings are shared to help with conservation efforts.<\/p>\n
The group also provides classroom presentations and community education on risk reduction for pets and farm animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to let people know that we can coexist with lions, and as much as possible, spark some reverence and wonder that we\u2019re all living together, and these are amazing creatures,\u201d Gardali said.<\/p>\n
Mountain lions are solitary cats that cover large territories. In Sonoma County, a female cat\u2019s territory is about 30 to 50 square miles, and a male covers about 100 to 200 square miles, according to the nonprofits.<\/p>\n
The cats feed primarily on black-tailed deer, but they are also known to prey on unprotected livestock, domestic cats and other wild creatures.<\/p>\n
Little is known about those that reside in Marin County.<\/p>\n
Quinton Martins, the founder of the Living With Lions research project, looks for tracks while following a mountain lion in the hills above Sonoma Valley in 2025. (John Burgess\/The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n
Quinton Martins, the director of True Wild Conservation, is the founder of the Living with Lions program and leads the investigations and captures. The program is based on work that Martins conducted in South Africa. Through the Living with Lions program, he has captured and tracked 40 lions in Sonoma County.<\/p>\n
Martins said the expansion to Marin, and its first capture, is the start of a new era of research.<\/p>\n
Martins said Marin County is not an area where one would expect many resident mountain lions because of the amount of open space. They prefer to move under cover, but there are some suitable areas for a suspected small population of the cats, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Marin story is intriguing, you know, because it kind of fills in this last piece of the puzzle in terms of how mountain lions behave at the end of the road,\u201d Martins said.<\/p>\n
Mountain lions traveling south in coastal California are cut off in the Marin Headlands area. The only way for them to travel south is to head east around the bay, Martins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some really cool stories,\u201d Martins said.<\/p>\n
One, for example, is P-36, who was collared in Santa Rosa and moved through Marin County down to the Golden Gate Bridge. When he discovered he couldn\u2019t get any farther, he crossed Highway 101 and attempted to go through the Tiburon Peninsula. Again, he couldn\u2019t get anywhere, so he headed back north.<\/p>\n
The group tracked P-36 for about 1,400 miles before he was shot and killed by a ranch owner because of a livestock kill.<\/p>\n
The group members said killing a mountain lion results in that vacant territory being filled by one or more lions, which doesn\u2019t solve the problem of unprotected domestic animals.<\/p>\n
Martins said ranchers and pet owners in rural areas have a responsibility to protect their animals by keeping them in enclosed areas. At night, animals should be in a locked space where a mountain lion is unable to see inside and cannot enter, Martins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they can see into an enclosure, it creates havoc and they\u2019ll try to get their paws through,\u201d Martins said.<\/p>\n
Gardali said the group is also tracking where mountain lions cross roads or highways, so it can do whatever is possible to keep the animals from being struck by cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see if there\u2019s important wildlife corridors that lions are using that we may be able to protect or at least steward if they\u2019re already protected,\u201d Gardali said.<\/p>\n
Martins said the project has a broader conservation goal of \u201cgeneral wildlife coexistence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mountain is a great ambassador for broader habitat conservation because they\u2019re these apex predators needing the building blocks to be in place to be able to survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The researchers rely on word of mouth to locate mountain lions to capture. That includes reporting from people who spot a big cat on a security or wildlife camera, or who have had livestock or a pet killed, or who discover freshly killed deer.<\/p>\n
Residents are encouraged to contact Martins at quinton@truewild.org or 707-721-6560 to report the incidents.<\/p>\n
The program is funded by donations and grants from individuals, foundations, businesses and government agencies. All Hands Ecology is seeking funding to support work continuing in Marin County.<\/p>\n
Gardali said the group is starting conversations with organizations such as the Marin County parks department and the Marin Municipal Water District to gain access on properties for its research.<\/p>\n
Jon Campo, conservation science manager at Marin County Parks, said there are more than 100 wildlife cameras in the Mount Tamalpais Watershed area that capture pictures of wildlife, including mountain lions. Other than that, the county doesn\u2019t have much data on the cats, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re certainly excited to learn more about what they have in mind in their study and what they hope to learn from it,\u201d Campo said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wildlife conservation group has captured its first mountain lion in Marin as part of an expanded research…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[2356,192,2558,983,5415,24228,3,4910,5413,7234,79,5414,259191,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-594938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-marin-county","13":"tag-mountain-lions","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newsletter","16":"tag-north-bay","17":"tag-northern-california","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-sonoma-county","20":"tag-west-marin","21":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}