Celebrity Los Angeles cougar killed after car accident

A Los Angeles celebrity, a cougar whose image and story were used to campaign for a wildlife crossing over Highway 101, has died after apparently being hit by a car.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the cougar, known as P-22, had lived in Griffith Park in the city of Los Angeles for years. It was said to have killed a pet Chihuahua dog and to have been acting erratically. It was found in a backyard by National Park Service employees and taken in for evaluation. It was euthanized Saturday.

It was a Los Angeles Times story that introduced the world to the cougar. National Geographic published a feature on it. After that, the cougar became something of a celebrity. The Los Angeles City Council proclaimed Oct. 22 as “P-22 Day.”

The cougar became the focus of a campaign to build a crossover bridge for wildlife over Highway 101. There was a groundbreaking for the bridge in April on Earth Day.

The Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing – also known as the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing – will span eight lanes of highway plus two exit lanes. It is 200 feet long and 165 feet wide.
It will connect the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The $87 million project is expected to be finished in 2025.

Campaigners to get the bridge constructed billed it as one of the largest urban wildlife crossings in the United States.

The cougar lived in an area hemmed in by highways. The Highway 101 freeway forms an almost impenetrable barrier for the threatened cougar population in the Santa Monica Mountains, cutting them off from a wider gene pool to the north, the Los Angeles Times reported. That has led to inbreeding and genetic abnormalities that endangered the population. It was also found to have ingested rat poison and suffered from mange, a parasitic disease.

“His story of being isolated and trapped is what really got people to realize why a crossing like that was needed, more than any scientific paper could,” Beth Pratt told the Los Angeles Times. She is a regional executive director in California for the National Wildlife Federation and often called herself “P-22’s agent.” LL