A 12-year-old wild mountain lion named P-22 was euthanized Dec. 17 after being struck by a automobile and wandering right into a yard in Los Angeles. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife captured the cat; an examination revealed liver, kidney, and coronary heart illness, immense weight reduction, parasites, and an unhealthy coat along with the ruptured diaphragm, herniated organs, cranium fracture, and eye bother possible ensuing from the affect.
When an individual passes away, outpourings of grief and assist are acceptable. People depart behind a breadcrumb path of recollections, interactions, and moments shared with family members and acquaintances.
Here’s the factor: P-22 was not a human. He was a wild animal. But within the wake of P-22’s loss of life, members of the puma’s dwelling neighborhood in Los Angeles are in a darkish place.
“I am so sad for the passing of P-22 and am crying as I write this,” one contributor mentioned in an L.A. Times article commemorating P-22. “He was a true icon and rockstar, one of the most beloved celebrities in Los Angeles. A true survivor. I thank him for bringing awareness to the plight of urban wildlife, and especially the urban mountain lions. May he forever roam happy and free in the great beyond. P-22: Los Angeles loved you with all [its] heart. I love you and will forever carry you with me in my memories.”
CDFW director Chuck Bonham fought again tears whereas saying the cat’s loss of life publicly. This show revealed a stunning attachment to a single wild animal from a person who oversees a nearly-$600-million funds for managing wildlife within the third largest state within the nation.
“I saw a reference yesterday…about the city considering P-22 to be Los Angeles’ king. I know this morning that you feel you’ve lost your king, but he’s never ever going to be forgotten and we can’t let him be forgotten.”
It goes with out saying that the feelings of Los Angeles residents went unreciprocated for the final decade. P-22 was fully unaware of his fame. He had no data of the books, documentaries, and murals devoted to him, nor of his Facebook and Instagram accounts with the tens of 1000’s of followers and tongue-in-cheek, first-person posts. He chased mule deer and slept whereas Los Angeles celebrated “P-22 Day” each October 22 since 2016. His digital footprint may make him one of the crucial anthropomorphized animals in historical past, up there with the likes of Shamu and Cecil the Lion.
Sure, some public curiosity in a charismatic critter may help promote conservation and biodiversity, particularly for that specific species. But the sentiment for P-22 rocketed previous wholesome public curiosity and wandered into severe obsession territory. Anthropomorphizing wild animals has an extended checklist of detriments, amongst them distorting our human relationship with the wild world round us, clouding sound wildlife administration selections, and making a hierarchy of species worthy of concern that prioritizes the lovable and fuzzy.
Survival within the Urban Jungle
P-22 first confirmed up in Griffith Park in 2012 as a 3-year-old. The most novel a part of his arrival was what roads he crossed to get there: the 101 and the 405, each four- to six-lane freeways that had killed mountain lions previously.
Within two weeks of P-22 first showing on digital camera, National Park Service biologists conducting a research on cougars within the Santa Monica Mountains captured, sedated, and collared him for additional research. Trail cameras photographed his actions and habits. P-22 largely ate mule deer and averted people within the park. His obvious lack of risk to the general public and an ample pure meals provide made it straightforward to justify not relocating him. Still, scientists puzzled how lengthy he’d keep within the park. A evident lack of feminine mountain lions was a transparent purpose for the lion to go away.
“Scientists assumed P-22 would eventually leave Griffith Park to find a mate or a bigger territory,” an L.A. Times article from April 2022 reads. “Most male pumas in the Santa Monica Mountains have about 150 square miles to roam; P-22’s territory is about 6% that size. But, it seemed, he knew prime real estate when he saw it.”
In December 2013, P-22’s already-growing fame received a serious increase when images of him in entrance of the Hollywood signal made National Geographic Magazine. Suddenly, P-22 wasn’t acknowledged as a predator that strayed from his authentic dwelling vary right into a dangerously small pocket of city wild. He was seen as a celeb roaming the hills with all the opposite stars. Trail cameras had been his paparazzi, mule deer his fad weight-reduction plan.
After the National Geographic story, P-22’s life turned extra intertwined with trendy city society. When biologists captured P-22 to replace his collar in 2014, they seen proof of rodenticide in his system and extreme mange in consequence. The rat poison possible got here from consuming a useless rodent. Biologists administered a topical therapy for the mange and a few vitamin injections and launched him again into Griffith Park.
In 2015 he spent hours in a crawl area beneath a house in Los Feliz. He made headlines once more in 2016 when a koala disappeared from the Los Angeles Zoo. Although it couldn’t be confirmed that P-22 was the perpetrator, the scenario raised questions about whether or not there was sufficient room for people and predators to coexist in Los Angeles.
The Power of the Fan Club
Like many different cultural obsessions, individuals celebrated P-22 with a number of merchandise. Some are proud house owners of a $50 P-22 stuffed animal. Others don ears, a tail, and a pretend GPS collar as a part of the official P-22 costume. “I Heart P-22” t-shirts and stickers match “King of the Hills” Nalgene water bottles and resin casts of his pawprint. Proceeds from these purchases assist the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars marketing campaign. His face is tattooed on many a physique half, together with the higher arm of the #SaveLACougars marketing campaign director.
There are actual advantages to this type of publicity: The marketing campaign has largely rallied across the Wallis-Annenberg Wildlife Crossing. Construction of the $90 million wildlife bridge spanning the 101 freeway started in April 2022 and needs to be accomplished in 2024. This venture will enhance habitat connectivity for wildlife, together with mountain lions, within the Santa Monica Mountains.
The wildlife bridge is a serious silver lining to P-22’s in any other case irregular existence. The National Park Service and CDFW determined to seize and conduct a well being examination on the previous cat after it stalked, attacked, and killed a leashed chihuahua in November 2022 and attacked one other one earlier in December. CDFW and the NPS deemed this habits a possible “sign of distress.”
Even although wholesome predators are recognized to kill pets, in P-22’s case, it was possible the results of his unwell well being. Then he was hit by a automobile, captured, and euthanized after an examination. Director Bonham acknowledges that Los Angeles “put him in this predicament because of our built environment.” But he stays adamant that the longer term may be brighter for city wildlife.
“We can fix this. We need everyone to stand up, raise their voices, create this movement to fix that built environment so these majestic animals have the freedom to roam and connectivity for their future,” he calls for into the digital camera.
But the undercurrent is obvious: so long as wild critters like P-22 roam city areas, they gained’t be handled like wildlife.
“Scientists caution against anthropomorphizing P-22, but Angelenos can’t help but see themselves in the big cat,” one article reads. “He battled traffic on the 405 and never wanted to do it again. He’s carved out a life in a crowded city. And though he’s still handsome for his advanced age — most pumas in the wild don’t live past 12, and he’s already there — he’s terminally single.”
The Aftermath of P-22
If P-22 lived unaware of Los Angeles’ unhealthy obsession with him, his gradual, undeniably painful loss of life was definitely impactful, though not in the best way you or I would hope it could be. For instance, most Californians who oppose predator searching as a wholesome a part of wildlife administration (mountain lion searching has been banned in California since 1990) are in all probability entrenched in these views. When you consider a inhabitants primarily based in your ardour for a person, emotion replaces science. Perhaps a couple of people will acknowledge that different fates like rat poison, illness, getting struck by a automobile, and deadly injection are usually not kinder or cheaper than the swift finish a hunter offers. But I anticipate such of us are few and much between after P-22’s lionization.
If something, some Angelinos appear looking forward to the subsequent charismatic predator that stumbles throughout the 405 into the royal throne as soon as held by ‘King’ P-22. They don’t appear very involved that the proverbial kingdom of Griffith Park is far too small for a wholesome grownup mountain lion.
The P-22 obsession can’t be the fact we create and reinforce for our nation’s predators. We should respect them sufficient to not drown them in closeness and human affection. They don’t want us to cherish them or idolize them. What they want from us is straightforward: a bit respect, a number of wholesome habitat, and deterrence after they get too near changing into downside animals.
If we are able to’t present these issues for wildlife with out excessive anthropomorphizing, P-22 gained’t be the final charismatic predator to fulfill an finish like this one.