Famed Mountain Lion P-22, Often called the ‘Hollywood Cat,’ Euthanized at SD Zoo

P-22, the mountain lion who was captured Monday in a Los Feliz yard in a severely underweight and injured situation, was euthanized Saturday morning at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, California Division of Fish and Wildlife officers introduced.

“This actually hurts,” CDFW Director Chuck Bonham mentioned Saturday morning, combating again tears. “It’s been an extremely tough a number of days, and for myself, I felt your entire weight of the town of Los Angeles on my shoulders.”

Bonham mentioned P22 had various critical accidents and power well being issues, and after session with a number of veterinary consultants, the choice was made to humanely euthanize the animal on the San Diego facility, the place he was being handled, to spare him additional struggling.

The lion, one in all many Southland-area cats being tracked by Nationwide Park Service researchers, gained fame regionally for his persistence and sturdiness, efficiently managing to cross each Interstate 405 and U.S. 101 freeways to succeed in his latest roaming grounds within the Griffith Park space.

Often called the “Hollywood Cat,” P-22 turned the face of the NPS’ lion- monitoring effort. His exploits had been documented in varied media accounts, together with the freeway crossings, hiding out below a Los Feliz dwelling in a standoff that drew widespread consideration and even being named a suspect within the killing of a koala on the Los Angeles Zoo.

He was believed to be about 11 or 12 years outdated, making him the oldest cat within the NPS’ research of Southland lions. He’s believed to have been born within the Santa Monica Mountains, in some way discovering his strategy to his tiny, nine-square- mile dwelling in Griffith Park, separated from his beginning space by two of the busiest freeways on the planet. Defying expectations, he persevered for greater than 10 years within the smallest dwelling vary that has ever been recorded for an grownup male mountain lion.

He was initially captured and outfitted with a monitoring collar in 2012. On the time of his final seize, he weighed 123 kilos.

Officers once more famous the facial damage Saturday, however mentioned essentially the most critical problem was a herniation of the lion’s stomach organs into his chest, together with vital pre-existing sicknesses that had been inflicting him to deteriorate, together with “irreversible kidney illness, power weight reduction, intensive parasitic pores and skin an infection over his total physique and localized arthritis.”

Bowman famous that proof suggests P-22 may have been struck by a automobile Sunday night, although that hasn’t been definitively confirmed.

A memorial service was deliberate for the animal someday after the vacations, however no particular particulars had been introduced. P-22 will obtain a post- mortem examination, and can contribute to a number of analysis research earlier than returning to the Los Angeles Pure Historical past Museum, in keeping with CDFW Senior Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Deana Clifford.

Officers hope the completion of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing mission close to Agoura Hills will dramatically enhance circumstances for the area’s sparse mountain lion inhabitants. The crossing will span over 10 lanes of U.S. 101 in Liberty Canyon when accomplished in 2025, and goals to offer a connection between the small inhabitants of mountain lions within the Santa Monica Mountains and the bigger and genetically various populations to the north.

“Mountain lion P-22 was greater than only a celeb cat. He was additionally a vital a part of a long-term analysis research and a invaluable ambassador for the reason for connectivity and for wildlife within the Santa Monica Mountains and past,” in keeping with an announcement from the Santa Monica Mountains Nationwide Recreation Space.

” … Though he made frequent appearances on the streets of the Hollywood Hills and even, extra not too long ago, of the Silver Lake neighborhood, he was additionally clearly a wild cat, doing so principally late at night time, and subsisting largely on pure prey comparable to deer and coyotes.

“Ultimately, he discovered his method into many Angelenos’ hearts and residential surveillance digital camera footage,” the assertion continued. “…This animal’s life and protected passage to Griffith Park are a testomony to each the challenges and the chances for wildlife in Los Angeles. He confirmed us what mountain lions should do to outlive in our city panorama, as he dispersed by means of it to discover a remaining island of habitat.

“He additionally confirmed us what they’re able to: surviving and co- present with tens of millions of individuals in a metropolis as dense and sprawling as Los Angeles.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose father was a founding father of the Mountain Lion Basis and championed protections for the species, mentioned P-22’s survival “on an island of wilderness within the coronary heart of Los Angeles captivated folks world wide and revitalized efforts to guard our various native species and ecosystems. The enduring mountain lion’s unbelievable journey helped encourage a brand new period of conserving and reconnecting nature, together with by means of the world’s largest wildlife overpass in Liberty Canyon. With revolutionary coalitions and techniques to revive important habitat throughout the state, we’ll proceed working to guard California’s valuable pure heritage for generations to return.”

Beth Pratt, California regional government director for the Nationwide Wildlife Federation, additionally issued an emotional eulogy for P-22, marveling that “a mountain lion lived right here, proper right here in Los Angeles.”

Pratt shared her expertise of assembly the animal shortly earlier than his demise.

“I’m so grateful I used to be given the chance to say goodbye to P-22. Though I’ve advocated for his safety for a decade, we had by no means met earlier than,” she wrote. “I sat close to him, trying into his eyes for a couple of minutes, and instructed him he was an excellent boy. I instructed him how a lot I cherished him. How a lot the world cherished him. And I instructed him I used to be so sorry that we didn’t make the world a safer place for him. I apologized that regardless of all I and others who cared for him did, we failed him.

” … P-22 by no means absolutely received to be a mountain lion. His entire life, he suffered the implications of making an attempt to outlive in unconnected house, proper to the tip when being hit by a automobile led to his tragic finish. He confirmed folks world wide that we have to guarantee our roads, highways, and communities are higher and safer when folks and wildlife can freely journey to seek out meals, shelter, and households. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing wouldn’t have been attainable with out P-22, however essentially the most becoming memorial to P-22 can be how we feature his story ahead within the work forward. One crossing isn’t sufficient — we should construct extra, and we should proceed to spend money on proactive efforts to guard and preserve wildlife and the habitats they rely on — even in city areas.

“P-22’s journey to and life in Griffith Park was a miracle,” Pratt continued. “It’s my hope that future mountain lions will be capable to stroll within the steps of P-22 with out risking their lives on California’s highways and streets. We owe it to P-22 to construct extra crossings and join the habitats the place we dwell now.”

A long time of highway development and improvement have been lethal for animals making an attempt to cross freeways, and have created islands of habitat which have genetically remoted wildlife from bobcats to birds and lizards.

Wildlife advocates hope the crossing can save the threatened native inhabitants of mountain lions from extinction. They’ve additionally characterised the long run construction as “a world mannequin for city wildlife conservation” that can “profit the wildlife and ecology of the world for generations to return.”

The $85 million mission would be the largest crossing of its form on the planet, stretching 210 ft over the freeway. Extra details about the marketing campaign to assist the mountain lions may be discovered at savelacougars.org.

CDFW officers paid tribute to P-22 as a fantastic ambassador for his species and one of many driving forces behind the trouble to finish the freeway crossing.

“He’s by no means going to be forgotten and he can’t be forgotten,” Bonham mentioned. “We put him on this predicament.”

–Metropolis Information Service