🕯️ LEGENDS GARDEN
🐆 P-22
Mountain lion (cougar) · Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California
Lives in Legends Garden
P-22 was born in the Santa Monica Mountains around 2009 and, before he was collared in March 2012, crossed both the 405 and the 101 freeways to reach Griffith Park. He lived there alone for a decade in about nine square miles, the smallest home range ever recorded for an adult male mountain lion, and never found a mate. A camera-trap photograph of him walking below the Hollywood Sign, taken by Steve Winter for National Geographic and published in December 2013, made him the face of urban wildlife in America. He was euthanized on 17 December 2022 and buried in the Santa Monica Mountains in March 2023 after a tribal blessing.
What they do
Pads forward, stops mid-stride, and swings his head around to stare straight into a camera-trap flash, long tail sweeping low behind him.
A bachelor who took the freeway to Hollywood and never once left the neighbourhood again.
Lore
- ★He crossed two of the busiest freeways in the United States, the 405 and the 101, as a young lion and survived both.
- ★In 2014 he caught mange after rodenticide exposure, was treated by the National Park Service, and had recovered by December 2015.
- ★Los Angeles holds a P-22 Day festival in Griffith Park each October, and the campaign he inspired raised over $100 million for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101.
Helping the real one
💛 Support P-22 via #SaveLACougars, National Wildlife FederationNational Wildlife Federation campaign, EIN 53-0204616. Fetched and confirmed as a live giving page; funds finish the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing and further Southern California wildlife connectivity under the #P22Legacy banner. This opens their own official page. Money never touches this site.
Where this comes from
Every link here was checked twice before it was published. If one is dead or wrong, tell us.