Leave Kitney Alone! P-22 in December | Photo: NPS, some rights reserved
LAs most famous feline resident got himself into a bit of trouble recently. Workers at the LA Zoo were surprised to find one of their koalas missing, a small tuft of fur left behind in her place. Eventually, the dead marsupial was found some four hundred meters away. After reviewing security footage, zoo staff were surprised to find evidence that the mountain lion called P-22 just might be the culprit.
Its not certain that the six-year-old lion took out the Australian mammal, a 14-year-old female named Killarney who liked to walk on the ground at night rather than remain safe high in the trees. The evidence is circumstantial, though damning. But that was the first indication that the famous cat had found a way into and out of zoo grounds. Its possible that P-22 initially found his way over the zoo fence while hunting raccoons, a hypothesis supported by subsequent photos showing P-22 snacking on the masked mammals inside the zoo. On the evening of March 2, it seems likely that P-22 couldnt resist expanding his diet a bit when Killarney appeared on his radar.
The mountain lion first wandered into Griffith Park sometime around February of 2012. Natural History Museum researcher Miguel Orde ana was reviewing photos from a camera trap as part of a survey called the Griffith Park Connectivity Study. After passing through hundreds of photos of deer, coyotes, raccoons, skunks, and bobcats, he was surprised to find a much larger cat. After being born farther west in the Santa Monica Mountains, P-22 would have had to survive crossing two of the nations busiest freeways, the 405 and 101, to make it all the way into the safe haven of the park.
--
--
Shortly after the initial discovery, carnivore researchers from the National Park Service trapped and collared the lion as part of their ongoing study of the species. He went from local legend to international celebrity after National Geographic photographer Steve Winter snapped a picture of him with the Hollywood sign in the background, a photo that would wind up on the cover of the august magazine. Despite all the attention, P-22 - the twenty-second puma included in the ongoing NPS study - has since lived a fairly quiet life in the park. But it's a life thats been uniquely impacted by humans.
Two years ago, camera trap photos revealed that the cat was in ill health. An assessment conducted by NPS researchers revealed that he was suffering from mange, likely brought on by the ingestion of prey animals who themselves were full of anticoagulant rat poisons.
After his recovery, he found himself again in a tight spot - literally. Workers installing a security system at a home in Los Feliz ran into the famous cat while working in the crawlspace under the home. Despite hours of continued harassment by wildlife officials and the media, including loud noises, bright lights, and being shot at with beanbag bullets, the impressive cat didnt exhibit even a hint of aggression.
This is a cat that has learned to coexist, completely un-aggressively, with a species far more dangerous than his own: us. That he has so far managed to eke out an existence in a habitat a tiny fraction of the size typical of male mountain lions habitat is all the more impressive. Griffith Park contains fewer than seven square miles; most males roam territories spanning some two hundred square miles.
P-22s home range, outlined in green, is far smaller than the ranges of two other male lions, which are still small for their species. | Map: Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
Zoo director John Lewis has the right attitude. In an official statement, he said, theres a lot of native wildlife in this area. This is their home. So well learn to adapt to P-22 just like hes learned to adapt to us.
But not all agree with Lewis. In a statement, City Councilman Mitch OFarrell, whose Thirteenth District borders the zoo, said, this tragedy just emphasizes the need to contemplate relocating P-22 to a safer, more remote wild area where he has adequate space to roam without the possibility of human interaction.
From a practical perspective, this is simply an ineffective solution, and its not an animal welfare-oriented one. When you try to relocate a territorial animal like a male mountain lion, youre likely going to put it in another mountain lions territory, said Michelle LaRue, research ecologist at the University of Minnesota and executive director of the Cougar Network. Territorial animals will defend their territory with their lives - or take the lives of those trying to edge their way in.
And even if another male didnt kill P-22, hed keep wandering in search of some free real estate, a journey that would again increase his risk of being hit by a car while crossing a highway. The number two cause of death for mountain lions in Los Angeles is an unsuccessful highway crossing attempt (the number one cause is more natural: aggressive interactions with other mountain lions). If the idea is to preserve P-22s life, adds LaRue, relocating him puts him at far more risk that hes at right now.
The fact is that recovering carnivore populations, the beneficiaries of half a century of careful conservation policies, combined with increased opportunities for our own outdoor recreation, have brought humans into increased contact with toothy predators. Despite the fact that bees, mosquitoes, spiders, snails, snakes, and even deer are responsible for more human deaths every year than mammalian carnivores, our fear of mountain lions, bears, coyotes, and the rest remains firmly entrenched. (Fairy tales dont feature little girls stealing porridge from a snail family.) Rather than remove the scary critters, lets instead learn how to coexist.
Hunting animals is simply what mountain lions are supposed to do. Rather than attem
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
Leave Kitney Alone! P-22 in December | Photo: NPS, some rights reserved 
