He crossed the 405 and the 101, posed in front of the Hollywood Sign and made Angelenos rethink how we coexist with nature. But P-22, L.A.’s most legendary mountain lion and Griffith Park’s most famous resident, was euthanized on Saturday.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that after a comprehensive evaluation, the medical team at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and CDFW officials recommended euthanasia due to both preexisting medical conditions and recent trauma (likely from a vehicle collision) that the likely-12-year-old big cat had sustained.
You probably never actually encountered P-22—aside from photographer Steve Winter’s shot of him in front of the Hollywood Sign—due to mountain lions’ largely elusive nature. That made a recent trio of dog attacks and a run-in with a Silver Lake resident particularly startling to wildlife officials. CDFW captured P-22 on December 12 for an extensive examination, and initial reports indicated that he wouldn’t be able to return to the wild, and would instead need to be placed in a sanctuary or euthanized.
Unfortunately, officials landed on the latter option after their exam. P-22 had irreversible kidney disease, localized arthritis, heart disease, chronic weight loss (he was 90 pounds instead of his usual 125) and a parasitic skin infection over his entire body. That put P-22 in an already weakened state when he was likely struck by a car recently (significant trauma to his head, right eye and internal organs point toward that as the likely cause), and would’ve required invasive surgery.
CDFW says it won’t be investigating the vehicle collision. “This situation is not the fault of P-22, nor of a driver who may have hit him,” the agency said in a statement. “Rather, it is an eventuality that arises from habitat loss and fragmentation, and it underscores the need for thoughtful construction of wildlife crossings and well-planned spaces that provide wild animals room to roam.”
In a remarkably moving eulogy, National Wildlife Federation regional executive director Beth Pratt echoed that sentiment. “It’s my hope that future mountain lions will be able to walk in the steps of P-22 without risking their lives on California’s highways and streets,” she wrote. “We owe it to P-22 to build more crossings and connect the habitats where we live now.” (Construction began this year on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, a land bridge over the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills.)
Pratt further elaborated on the tough conversations and decisions that led to P-22’s final moments. “Although I wished so desperately he could be returned to the wild, or live out his days in a sanctuary, the decision to euthanize our beloved P-22 is the right one,” she wrote. “With these health issues, there could be no peaceful retirement, only some managed care existence where we prolonged his suffering—not for his benefit, but for ours.”
P-22 was first temporarily captured for examination by the National Park Service in 2012, and has been tracked ever since. It’s believed that he was penned into a smaller territory than any other male mountain lion that had been studied (the park service tracks numerous others in the nearby Santa Monica Mountains), which pushed P-22 out of Griffith Park’s wilderness at times. He survived a bout with mange due to ingesting rat poisoning, squatted a home in Los Feliz for a little bit and became the prime suspect in the death of a koala at the L.A. Zoo. The surreal fact that Angelenos had a mountain lion prowling in their backyards (along with Mumbai, L.A. is one of only two major cities in the world with big cats) turned him into a beloved celebrity.
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