The most famous and reclusive resident of the Hollywood Hills is not a celebrity from the movies, but from the wild world: a 55-kilogram cougar. For ten years, the animal roamed freely in the region, making nocturnal appearances on cameras in hillside mansions and feeding on deer in Griffith Park.
But that balance has been broken in recent weeks. The feline attacked two Chihuahuas that were walking on a leash with their owners, on different occasions. In the first, the puppy died, and in the second, the owner managed to save the dog after counterattacking the puma, a species also known as puma and mountain lion.
The unexpected behavior led to the capture of P-22, its official name, on Monday (12), by biologists from the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency that has followed the animals in the Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, since 2002. The name P-22 comes from cougar, and the number comes from the sequence of registered cougars.
The future of the Hollywood ounce is uncertain. Euthanasia is not ruled out, as his health status is precarious, but there is the possibility of transfer to a sanctuary.
“P-22 may not return to Griffith Park, but its legacy to Los Angeles will not be lost,” he told Sheet the director of the National Wildlife Federation in California, Beth Pratt, an informal spokeswoman for the big cat who leads an annual festival in her honor.
“He showed us what’s possible. Even with all the roads and construction, a cougar can still make a home in the second largest city in the country. [EUA]🇧🇷 We still don’t know what’s wrong with him, but seeing all the support he’s getting in Los Angeles and around the world gives me hope.”
On Monday morning, P-22 was captured with the help of a tranquilizer dart while hiding in the backyard of a house in the neighboring neighborhood of Los Feliz. The owners of the property had no idea of the presence of the animal, which has been tracked by collar since 2012.
Initial scans showed that P-22 is significantly underweight and has an injury to his right eye, a possible consequence of being hit by a car over the weekend. He was given fluids with vitamins for dehydration, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and antiparasitic.
At the moment, P-22 is in a veterinary hospital dedicated to wild animals.
Pratt said he cried “tears of relief” when he learned that the cougar had been safely captured by friend and NPS biologist Jeff Sikich. “P-22 is now in a quiet area of the hospital, away from people and being watched by cameras,” said Pratt, author of “When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors” (when mountain lions are neighbors, ed. Heyday).
The puma gained celebrity status when it was discovered in 2012 by cameras installed in Griffith Park. The park, a 4,000-acre mountainous area (about 16 kmtwo), is visited by 10 million people a year and has a zoo, museum, observatory, golf course, dozens of trails and the Hollywood sign.
The surprise was huge: to get there, P-22 had to cross two of the busiest freeways in the country, in addition to the neighborhoods of Bel Air and Beverly Hills. In the park, he lived alone, without partners. Today, he is 12 or 13 years old, an advanced age for the species.
Dozens of cougars have already died crossing the highways, the most recent case last month. The 101 and 405 freeways cut through the Santa Monica Mountains, where ten to 15 young and adult cougars live, isolating the populations of several species.
To solve the problem, different agencies and activists have been planning for two decades to build a forest crossing over the 101 to connect habitats. In 2022, work finally began in the Agoura Hills, northwest of Los Angeles. The US$85 million (R$448 million) project will be the world’s largest wild corridor in an urban region.
“We’ve been monitoring this region with lots of cameras for seven years. We’ve seen everything, lynxes, deer, possums, and just three days ago we saw P-77, a young puma. He came to this hill, 50 meters from where the crossing will be. “, NPS biologist Jeff Sikich told the report, at a start-up event in September.
“I like to think that if the bridge had already been here, P-77 would have crossed. It would be an important addition to the very low genetic diversity of the cougars on the other side.”
Sikich was on the NPS team that captured P-22 in 2012 when they checked his health and gave him a tracker collar. In 2014, when it was captured again for a routine examination, the feline was sick, probably poisoned after consuming an animal that had ingested rodenticide. He was treated and returned to the park.
“Attacks by mountain lions on people are extremely rare. Our 20-year research in this city of millions shows that cougars do their best to avoid us,” said Sikich, who has tracked more than 100 pumas, the most recent this month (four pups of the animal P-99).
“Sometimes pumas cross our backyards or appear on our cameras, but they prefer to avoid us and they avoid areas with buildings. They prefer nature.”
Because of his fame, P-22 became a poster child for the hall and for the fight to ban the sale of rat poison, of which he was already a victim. Since 2015, a festival in Griffith Park celebrates its existence, organized by the National Wildlife Federation.
Pratt, who has a P-22 tattoo on his arm, kicks off the event with a 50-mile walk to simulate his trek to the park. On the trail, she wears a 900-gram tracking collar around her neck, the same one used on pumas, to show that the device is safe. At the end of the festival, the collar is donated to the NPS program.
With the likely future absence of P-22 from Griffith Park, Pratt promises to continue with the festival and its walk. “I will continue to honor his legacy until we fix this terrible connectivity issue he is suffering from and build more wildlife crossings,” he said.
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