The mountain lion P-22, who lived within the coronary heart of Los Angeles for greater than a decade and have become the face of a world marketing campaign to save lots of Southern California’s threatened pumas, was euthanized Saturday due to a number of long-term well being issues and accidents that probably stemmed from being hit by a automotive, officers stated.
In a tearful information convention, wildlife biologists described a number of continual diseases that will have contributed to the mountain lion’s latest uncharacteristic habits. The massive cat of Griffith Park was “compassionately euthanized” at about 9 a.m., officers stated.
“This actually hurts, and I do know that,” stated Chuck Bonham, director of the California Division of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s been an extremely troublesome a number of days. And for myself, I’ve felt all the weight of the town of Los Angeles.”
Officers with the Nationwide Park Service and the state’s wildlife division determined to seize and consider the mountain lion earlier this month after he started to exhibit rising “indicators of misery,” together with three assaults on canine in a month and a number of other near-miss encounters with folks strolling in Los Feliz and Silver Lake.
The massive cat was captured Monday in a yard in Los Feliz, sedated and brought in for medical analysis. The evening earlier than his seize, an nameless caller had reported a automobile collision with a mountain lion just a few blocks south of Griffith Park, and P-22’s radio collar positioned him close by, officers stated.
Well being exams revealed that P-22 weighed about 90 kilos, a lack of practically one-fourth of his traditional physique weight. The massive cat had a cranium fracture, an harm to his proper eye, herniated organs and a torn diaphragm, stated Dr. Hendrik Nollens, vice chairman of wildlife well being on the San Diego Zoo. Medical doctors additionally found P-22 had coronary heart, kidney and liver illness, a thinning coat and a parasitic an infection.
The mountain lion P-22, who lived within the coronary heart of Los Angeles for a decade and have become the face of a world marketing campaign to save lots of California’s threatened puma inhabitants, was euthanized due to accidents and long-term well being issues, officers stated.
Officers shortly realized that the mountain lion was not wholesome sufficient to be launched again to Griffith Park. However advocates, scientists and residents had hoped that the beloved animal was wholesome sufficient to retire to a nature protect.
Wildlife officers started contemplating euthanasia after exams revealed the extent of P-22’s well being issues, stated Bonham, who repeatedly fought again tears. He stated he hoped that Friday was P-22’s “final finest day,” versus a drawn-out decline that led to “his final day being his worst day.”
“It was a tricky resolution,” stated Beth Pratt, a regional govt director in California for the Nationwide Wildlife Federation, who usually known as herself P-22’s agent. “It was the best resolution. This animal didn’t need to endure.”
The mountain lion was regarded as about 12 years outdated.
A distant digital camera captures P-22 passing a nighttime Hollywood check in Griffith Park.
(Steve Winter/Nationwide Geographic)
P-22 stunned the world in 2012 when his fluffy hindquarters and black-tipped tail appeared on {a photograph} snapped by a motion-sensing digital camera in Griffith Park. The adolescent cat had made an inconceivable trek to Griffith Park from his birthplace within the Santa Monica Mountains, journeying by way of the Hollywood Hills and throughout the 405 and 101 freeways.
P-22 was first launched to the world in a Los Angeles Instances story. The massive cat quickly grew to become a bona fide celeb, showing in a shiny Nationwide Geographic function that confirmed the mountain lion prowling previous the Hollywood signal at evening, muscle mass rippling beneath his tawny fur.
Scientists assumed the apex predator would transfer on seeking a mate and extra space to roam. As an alternative, the wayward cat stayed in Los Feliz for greater than 10 years, feasting on mule deer and raccoons and infrequently showing on video doorbell cameras on quiet, hilly streets close to the park. The cat lived alone and, so far as scientists can inform, by no means mated.
Catching a glimpse of P-22 on a nighttime prowl grew to become one of the crucial coveted celeb sightings in Los Angeles.
Like many cougars, that are generally known as “ghost cats,” P-22 was shy by nature. For years, he most well-liked the park’s darkish canyons and hillsides — and, generally, a darkened metropolis sidewalk — to populated areas. However he had just lately began to enterprise deeper into L.A., wandering as far south as Silver Lake and staying in residential areas for longer stretches of time.
These forays coincided with a rise in run-ins with people, together with attacking three canine within the span of a month, and chasing a person and his canine again up a set of steps and into their home in Silver Lake, wildlife officers stated.
P-22’s discovery in Griffith Park led to one of the crucial uncommon parts of his life: the town taking his facet, as an alternative of demanding that he be eliminated. Massive cats prowl massive swaths of the US, however few cities would enable a cougar to dwell of their midst, not to mention keep for a decade.
Many Angelenos noticed themselves in P-22, an growing old bachelor who adjusted to a too-small area within the massive metropolis, ready for a mate who would possibly by no means arrive. Others recognized together with his story, crossing borders and freeways seeking a spot he may name residence.
“Crossing the border, being persecuted in some areas of the nation — folks really feel a reference to that,” stated Miguel Ordeñana, the scientist who first found P-22, in a 2022 interview.
P-22 went on to realize the sort of lasting fame of which most Angelenos can solely dream. His photogenic face, together with darkish markings across the eyes that resembled eyeliner, appeared in a documentary and an exhibit at Los Angeles County’s Pure Historical past Museum. The massive cat was featured on socks, tattoos and bumper stickers. And by order of the Metropolis Council, each Oct. 22 was celebrated as “P-22 Day.”
P-22’s presence in Griffith Park was a reminder that Los Angeles is much wilder than it seems, with one of many highest ranges of organic variety of any massive metropolis in North America. The massive cat’s isolation within the park, surrounded by freeways, helped him grow to be the poster cat for the conservation marketing campaign known as “Save L.A. Cougars.”
On Saturday, Bonham famous P-22’s standing as an environmental icon and stated he hoped the cat’s demise would function a reminder to Angelenos that wild animals deserve the liberty to roam and coexist with people.
“I do know this morning that you simply really feel you’ve misplaced your king, however he’s by no means, ever going to be forgotten,” Bonham stated. “We put him on this predicament due to our constructed surroundings.”
The 101 Freeway kinds an virtually impenetrable barrier for the threatened puma inhabitants within the Santa Monica Mountains, reducing them off from a wider gene pool to the north. That has led to inbreeding that has triggered genetic abnormalities and will result in infertility.
Latest scientific modeling has drawn a dire conclusion: With out intervention, pumas within the Santa Monica and Santa Ana mountains could possibly be extinct inside 50 years.
California nature activists spent greater than a decade elevating $77 million in non-public donations and state funding for a wildlife bridge throughout a 10-lane stretch of the 101 in Agoura Hills, which they hope will widen the breed’s gene pool. The plight of P-22, alone in a tiny territory hemmed in by freeways, drew assist from all over the world, together with from Leonardo DiCaprio’s charitable basis.
The state broke floor on the wildlife bridge in April. Its presence, advocates say, could also be P-22’s most lasting contribution.
“His story of being remoted and trapped is what actually acquired folks to comprehend why a crossing like that was wanted, greater than any scientific paper may,” Pratt stated. “He modified the world for his form.”
P-22 usually went days with out being noticed. However there have been high-profile hijinks too.
About two years after arriving within the park, P-22 appeared on trail-camera footage trying gaunt, his tail as skinny as a pipe cleaner. The Nationwide Park Service trapped and handled him with topical medicines and vitamin Okay injections, then launched him.
Exams later confirmed that P-22 had been uncovered to rat poison and was affected by mange, a parasitic mite. The photograph launched of the large cat whereas sick went viral, displaying the once-handsome face bedraggled, the eyes sagging.
The picture helped spur motion within the California Legislature and in the end led to a 2020 regulation quickly banning some sorts of rat poison.
A couple of months later, a contractor for a home-security firm discovered the cat lounging in a crawl area beneath a home within the hills of Los Feliz. Quickly, helicopters have been hovering above the road, masking the incident like an FBI raid. One native information station added a caption that screamed: “BREAKING NEWS: P-22 TRAPPED INSIDE HOME.”
When officers lastly cleared the realm, P-22 slipped again, unseen, to Griffith Park.
In 2016, P-22 grew to become the prime suspect within the demise of a 14-year-old koala named Killarney, whose mutilated physique was discovered about 400 yards away from her enclosure on the Los Angeles Zoo. The assault was not recorded, however the zoo’s surveillance cameras positioned the puma on the scene. Few animals can simply leap over an 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire.
The assault is the one recognized instance of a mountain lion consuming a koala. The 2 animals will not be present in nature in the identical components of the world.
After the assault, a metropolis councilman steered that P-22 be moved to a brand new habitat, saying Griffith Park was “in the end not appropriate for him.” However the place the puma may go stymied the dialogue. Transferring P-22 to any space already occupied by one other mountain lion could possibly be a demise sentence, as a result of the large cats kill to guard their territory.
The zoo and residents of Los Angeles took P-22’s facet. The zoo’s director of animal applications later instructed a Instances reporter: “We’re in Griffith Park, and Griffith Park is his residence, and we have now to respect that. You may’t maintain a mountain lion accountable for being a mountain lion.”
A memorial service will likely be held for the large cat after Christmas, although particular plans haven’t been launched. With tears on her face, Pratt stated she would have a casual gathering in Griffith Park on Saturday with different mourners.
