Famed LA cougar captured in backyard, undergoing medical tests
Tori Richards
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The beloved wild mountain lion P-22 has been captured in Los Angeles by wildlife officials who will perform a variety of tests to determine why his behavior has recently changed.
P-22 attacked two Chihuahuas in the past month, a sharp deviation from his peaceful nature over the past decade, in which he has feasted on mule deer while coexisting with wealthy neighbors bordering the park.
The National Park Service put a tracking collar on P-22 in 2012 and used that device to locate the animal in the backyard of a home on Monday. He was several miles away from Griffith Park in the Los Feliz district and possibly had been hit by a car, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported.
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Resident Sarah Picchi had the surprise of her life when wildlife officials showed up at her home to capture P-22. He had spent Sunday night at her home.
“’You have a lion in your backyard,’” Picchi said, recalling her conversation with officials to the Los Angeles Times. “Of course, I knew it was P-22 because I’ve been following the story.”
Biologists used a dart gun to tranquilize P-22 and place him on a green tarp. He was loaded into a crate placed on a truck for transportation to a zoo for evaluation.
“It was the most exciting day we’ve ever had at our house,” she said. “My husband and I hope P-22 is safe, and, like the rest of L.A., we’re just rooting for him.”
“It’s so obvious that he’s in some distress, that something has radically changed his behavior,” Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation told the Los Angeles Times. Pratt added that she burst into tears upon hearing that P-22 had been captured.
California wildlife officials say they are aware of the public’s concerns.
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P-22’s exam will include a CT scan and other tests to determine if he ingested rat poison or some other toxin. The feline recovered once from eating an animal that had ingested insecticide. He is the only cougar studied by the National Park Service to survive such a situation.
The cat is named P-22 as he is the 22nd puma to be tagged in a federal wildlife study program.