10 years ago this week – on February 12th 2012, P22 mountain lion was discovered in Griffith Park. “It was like finding the Chupacabra!” says wildlife biologist Miguel Ordenana who spotted the backside of P22 on one of his camera traps while doing a census of the wildlife in the park.
Since then P22 has entered our national consciousness and has become our favourite big cat and a bonafide Angeleno.
He has inspired a generation of conservationists, artists, writers and poets with his amazing tale of resilience and fortitude and above all adaptability. P22 is one of the few big cats to live in the middle of a major metropolis.
Friends of Griffith Park has put together an amazing 10 year anniversary timeline on their website and The Cat That Changed America is proud to be part of P22’s story.
The National Wildlife Federation and Save LA Cougars have been raising money for a Wildlife Crossing over the 101 freeway to help other mountain lions like P22. You can find out more about the Wildlife Crossing here:
This wildlife crossing is so important as genetic diversity among LA’s mountain lions is “much lower than anywhere else across California, or anywhere else across the West where people have studied mountain lion genetics,” says Seth Riley with the National Park Service. “There’s room essentially for 10 to 15 adults … that’s too small in the long run.” A report by UCLA finds the iconic cats will go extinct in 12 to 15 years unless their gene pool expands.
You can watch The Cat That Changed America here:
And you can read about his amazing story in a book of the same name to accompany the film:
Find out about the inspiration of the making of the book and film in this TikTok video and please share to raise awareness about P22.
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a documentary film about P22 mountain lion 