While many communities in America would react with extreme prejudice to the presence of a large wild cat on the prowl, in celebrity-mad Los Angeles, P-22 became the toast of the town. P-22’s international fame drove sales of merch. (The “P” stands for “puma” the “22,” his place in the sequence of mountain lions studied by NPS.) In 2015, when a Pasadena radio station presumed to rename him “Pounce de Leon” or anything sounding less like a villain in the Terminator franchise, listeners revolted and the contest was canceled. “P-22” was the name NPS researchers gave him when they placed a GPS radio collar around his neck after his discovery. was oddly comforting to Angelenos who longed for a return to a wilder, freer Los Angeles. In a city contorted by freeways and traffic, the presence of a mountain lion roaming freely in the heart of L.A. was aflutter with the idea of a feline, all silence and stealth, loping through the chaparral-choked arroyos below the Hollywood sign. Previous sightings in the Hollywood Hills-and the blurry photographs and hearsay used to back up their veracity-tended to be dismissed by wildlife experts as campfire stories. No mountain lion had come close to entering Griffith Park in the ten years since the NPS started tracking their movements. Artist Corie Mattie’s mural in Silver Lake, completed shortly before P-22’s death. ![]() ![]() County, the wildlife biologist credited with the discovery of the mysterious cat. “It was like discovering an urban legend, like Bigfoot or the chupacabra,” says Miguel Ordeñana of the Natural History Museum of L.A. In February 2012, news reached the National Park Service, which tags and tracks the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains, that a puma was hiding in plain sight in the busiest city park in Los Angeles.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |