A coyote found the wildlife bridge. The full crossing is still unproven

A coyote found its way onto the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing before builders had finished connecting the route. That is an encouraging first for a bridge meant to reconnect wildlife divided by the 101 Freeway. It is not yet evidence that a large mammal has made it all the way across.⁠¹

The animal was photographed shortly after 6 a.m. on October 28, becoming the first large mammal known to climb onto the structure near Agoura Hills, according to the Los Angeles Times. The National Park Service publicly shared the news on November 4—a week after the visit, not the day it happened. In the black-and-white image, the coyote heads uphill, nearly disappearing into its surroundings except for one eye shining white.⁠¹

Its journey stopped short because the crossing was still incomplete. The route consists of two overpasses, one above the freeway and another above an adjacent road, linked by a graded slope. When the coyote arrived, the soil had not been built up high enough to join them. Since then, crews have rapidly added soil, and larger animals may now be able to travel the entire route, the Times reported. That construction update matters: the obstacle in the photograph is not necessarily the obstacle animals face now.⁠¹

The defensible milestone is therefore narrow but important. An animal found the approach and climbed onto it. Smaller creatures, including Western fence lizards, had already appeared on the crossing; the coyote was not its first wildlife visitor. Nor does the account establish a completed large-mammal passage.⁠¹

For Beth Pratt, president of the Wildlife Crossing Fund, the photograph was nevertheless a breakthrough.

Pratt had helped make sure someone would be watching. After an October 8 news conference, she urged National Park Service wildlife biologist Jeff Sikich to aim a camera at the path toward the crossing’s southern side. She followed up with daily texts. Sikich installed the camera on October 14, covering part of the slope near Agoura Road; two weeks later, it recorded the coyote. The Times’ November 4 report is the source for the precise sighting and subsequent soil-work details.⁠¹

The roughly $114 million project is scheduled to open December 2, 2026, unless fierce winter storms delay the work, according to the Times. That cost is a reported approximation, not a final audited expenditure. Caltrans’ June 25, 2025 announcement had targeted completion in fall 2026; the later reporting supplies a more precise opening target, not evidence that an earlier December deadline was missed.⁠¹⁠¹⁶

Caltrans places the crossing west of Liberty Canyon Road in Agoura Hills, Los Angeles County, and describes a vegetated bridge linking open space on opposite sides of US-101. For mountain lions, the purpose is not simply to get above traffic. It is to reach other lions.⁠¹²

Freeways and development have hemmed in wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains, limiting access to unrelated mates. The crossing is intended to connect animals with the Simi Hills and habitat beyond, while allowing lions from outside the Santa Monicas to enter. Sikich told the Times that even one incoming mountain lion that breeds could meaningfully improve genetic diversity. The essential condition is successful reproduction—not merely a photograph of a lion on the bridge.⁠¹

The evidence of close-relative breeding predates this construction milestone by years. In a January 9, 2014 announcement, the National Park Service identified P-32 as one of three recently born kittens resulting from “first-order inbreeding.” That establishes very close relatedness without specifying the parental relationship here. In September 2020, the Times described another male, P-81, with an L-shaped tail kink and only one descended testicle, abnormalities linked to inbreeding.⁠⁵⁠⁶

A UCLA summary of subsequent research reported reproductive abnormalities and warned that mountain lions in the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains needed greater genetic diversity to avoid local extinction. That is a warning about risk, not a prediction that extinction is inevitable—or evidence that this crossing alone will prevent it.⁠⁸

Scientists are preparing to measure that distinction. On November 3, as the soil connection improved, Sikich installed six cameras on the crossing itself. The eventual system is planned to include more than 50 still-photo cameras and four thermal video cameras. Images and video will be shared publicly, but not streamed live. Those larger totals describe the intended network, not equipment already confirmed to be operating.⁠¹

Cameras will show only part of the story. Researchers plan GPS radio tracking of mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, deer and gray foxes to establish where they move. They are also implanting small recording devices called biologgers in deer, with mountain lions planned next. The devices are intended to track body temperature, heart rate and fat reserves, helping scientists investigate questions such as whether travelling above freeway traffic produces a measurable stress response.⁠¹

That work extends a long-running field effort. National Park Service scientists began radio-collaring bobcats and coyotes in Liberty Canyon in 1996 and studying mountain lions in 2002. By 2022, the agency said more than 25 years of wildlife research had supported the need for the crossing. Now the opportunity is to study reconnection rather than only document isolation.⁠¹⁠³

There are animals nearby to watch. In less than two months, a different camera near the southern end recorded a mountain lion with two older kittens and another uncollared lion. Those detections establish activity around the structure, not use of the bridge.⁠¹

For now, the coyote has answered one modest question: can a large mammal find its way onto the approach? The larger tests remain ahead—completed journeys, repeated use, safe movement beyond the crossing and, eventually, breeding between mountain-lion populations. The photograph is a beginning worth celebrating. It is not the result the bridge was built to deliver.