Rose & Sage

Through a collaborative effort, two orphaned mountain lions are rehabilitated before finding their forever home at The Living Desert.

By Lindsay Jarvis, Staff Writer

The Living Desert is thrilled to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the arrival of mountain lions, Rose and Sage. Now thriving together in their habitat in Eagle Canyon, Rose and Sage have fought against the odds despite each having a unique story with an arduous beginning. Due to the increased residential growth into previously undisturbed parts of California in recent years, mountain lions are suffering from fragmentation and degradation of their forest land habitat. Mountain lions’ expansive roaming area of approximately 100 square miles for males and 20-60 square miles for females means that the building of a single road to reach those new homes can drastically disrupt the animals’ range, consequently leading to more vehicle collisions and orphaned young.

In April 2022, hikers spotted an emaciated female mountain lion cub in San Mateo, California. After five days of extensive searching and monitoring through a joint effort with California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, the four- to five month-old female cub was located and retrieved. Transported to the Oakland Zoo’s veterinary hospital just in time, ‘Rose’ was extremely malnourished, emaciated, and dehydrated. Thanks to Oakland Zoo’s round-the-clock care and expertise, little Rose was on the road to a full recovery.

Rose, who was less than one-third the weight of a healthy female mountain lion her age when found, was rehabilitated for several months at the Oakland Zoo.

“Rose carries on with her playful personality finding something new to interact with weekly and trucking it out to the guest window to show off,” shares Heather Down, Animal Care Curator.

Just two months later, a six- to eight-month-old male mountain lion cub was discovered in a classroom at Pescadero High School in Northern California, hiding under the teacher’s desk. With no sightings of a mother around, California Fish and Wildlife safely relocated the orphan to Oakland Zoo where the malnourished cub, ‘Sage,’ received medical care from the veterinary team.

Sage was discovered in a classroom, underneath a teacher’s desk. The underweight young mountain lion was rehabilitated at the Oakland Zoo along with Rose.

“Sage’s confidence has reached new heights — quite literally!” shares Heather Down, Animal Care Curator. “His favorite look out point sits about 10 feet high. Rose hasn’t quite figured out how to make the climb.”

Rose and Sage were introduced to each other as a (non-breeding) pair and got along from the start. Unfortunately, the two juvenile mountain lions were not able to be released back into the wild as they were too young to be able to survive on their own, having missed out on the critical first two years of life usually spent learning from their mothers.

After several months of rehabilitation, the Oakland Zoo and The Living Desert worked together to prepare Rose and Sage for a trip to their new, forever home at The Living Desert. After some acclimating in their behind-the-scenes habitat, the pair were introduced into the mountain lion habitat in Eagle Canyon and have been settling in ever since.

“It has been rewarding to not only watch but be a part of Rose and Sage’s development from cub to juvenile-aged cougars,” says Heather Down, Animal Care Curator. “They both continue their accomplishments in participating in their own health care with voluntary weights and injections for vaccines thanks to the dedicated care of our animal care keepers and veterinary staff.”