MONROVIA, Calif. (AP) — California wildlife officials say the first mountain lion to be rehabilitated and returned to the wild in California has died.
State Fish and Wildlife says the female cougar nicknamed Monrovia had been treated and released after being burned last year in the Bobcat Fire..
The animal was found with burns to all four paw pads last September after the Bobcat Fire tore through the San Gabriel mountains northeast of Los Angeles.
A tracking collar indicated the mountain lion died around Aug. 15 in mountains above the city of Monrovia, its namesake. She died at the bottom of a deep canyon, and it took some time for wildlife officials to reach her body.
Biologists estimate the cougar was 6 or 7 years old at the time of her rescue. The animals can live 10 years in the wild.
