Missing mountain lion cub Crimson begins recovery at Oakland Zoo

A three-week-old mountain lion cub missing toes on one hind foot is recovering at Oakland Zoo after being found alone in the Santa Monica Mountains and brought in by the National Park Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on March 25, 2026. Crimson was first cared for at the Los Angeles Zoo before being transferred north for ongoing treatment and rehabilitation.

Zoo officials said Crimson was underweight when found and is one of the youngest mountain lions Oakland Zoo has received since joining the Bay Area Cougar Action Team. The rescue marked the zoo’s 33rd mountain lion rescue, and staff members are bottle-feeding him every three hours while monitoring him closely. On its public mountain-lion page, Oakland Zoo says it has rescued and rehabilitated 30 mountain lions and warns that caring for the cubs takes enormous time and resources.

Crimson’s injuries and his isolation carry added weight in the Santa Monica Mountains, where the National Park Service has studied mountain lions since 2002. The agency says more than 100 lions have been monitored in and around the range, part of one of the longest continuous urban mountain lion studies in the country. That work has consistently pointed to a population that remains stable for now but is under pressure from habitat fragmentation, vehicle collisions and low genetic diversity.

That context makes Crimson more than a single rescue case. A cub so young, found alone and missing toes, highlights the risks facing big cats living at the edge of a sprawling metropolitan area. The Santa Monica Mountains remain one of the most closely watched mountain lion habitats in California, and each new rescue adds another data point to a long-running question: how long can the species hold on in an increasingly crowded landscape?

Oakland Zoo plans to pair Crimson with another rescued cub, Clover, so the two can socialize during recovery. For now, Crimson’s progress depends on around-the-clock care, steady feeding and the narrow hope that a tiny survivor can recover from injuries that may tell a larger story about the pressures on mountain lions in Southern California.