High-speed rail could doom mountain lions, other wildlife in Santa Cruz Mountains, biologists say.
But if the high-speed rail line is constructed without tunnels, bridges or other corridors to ensure wildlife can move through the landscape unimpeded, experts say, the Santa Cruz Mountains would become an island– fenced in by the ocean to the west and by human development to the north, east and south. For the mountain lions, badgers, bobcats and other animals of the Santa Cruz Mountains, island life could be disastrous.
“Cousins start breeding with cousins, brothers start breeding with sisters and eventually you have this spiral of inbreeding that can cause species to go extinct,” said Wilmers.
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