LOS ANGELES (AP) — A mountain lion that biologists have been studying in the wild near Los Angeles has given birth to three healthy kittens, the National Park Service said Thursday.

The three females, about a month old, were found May 18 in a patch of poison oak in the Simi Hills area, about 40 miles (65 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, the park service said in a statement.

They were born to a 5-year-old cougar, P-77, who has been monitored since November 2019. Scientists call the children P-113, P-114 and P-115.

The father is not immediately known. Biologists currently do not track male cougar in the P-77 habitat, so they suspect the father may have come from the nearby mountains and then returned.

P-77 is located in the area between the 101 and 118 freeways, which straddle the Santa Monica and Santa Susana mountain ranges.

This is the third mountain lion litter found in Simi Hills in recent years. According to officials, P-62 gave birth in 2018 and P-67 in 2020.

The Park Service has been studying mountain lions in and around the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002 to determine how they survive in a fragmented and urbanized environment.