{"id":1429,"date":"2015-04-14T16:45:12","date_gmt":"2015-04-14T23:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2022-08-01T12:48:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T19:48:54","slug":"elusive-mountain-lion-p-22-captivates-la-then-quickly-vanishes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2015\/04\/14\/elusive-mountain-lion-p-22-captivates-la-then-quickly-vanishes\/","title":{"rendered":"Elusive mountain lion P-22 captivates LA then quickly vanishes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Cougar flees crawl space of Loz Feliz home after officials clear area<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Source of this article: The<\/p>\n<p>A celebrity mountain lion transformed a wealthy hillside neighborhood into a paparazzi-like scene of scrambling photographers before eluding everyone Tuesday and quietly slipping away.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1430\" style=\"width: 546px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P-22.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1430\" class=\" wp-image-1430\" src=\"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P-22.jpg\" alt=\"P-22 seen in a crawl space under a Los Feliz home on Monday. A worker installing a security system came eye to eye with the puma.\" width=\"536\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P-22.jpg 850w, https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/P-22-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1430\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-22 seen in a crawl space under a Los Feliz home on Monday. A worker installing a security system came eye to eye with the puma.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The 125-pound beast, easily recognizable by the collar and ear tag wildlife officials placed on him a few years ago, has been seen from time to time roaming the hillsides overlooking downtown Los Angeles. In 2013, National Geographic published a glamorous action shot of the mountain lion on the prowl near the Hollywood sign.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"0\" height=\"0\" style=\"border: 0px currentColor; vertical-align: bottom; display: none; visibility: hidden;\" id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/natworld\/nation_2__hidden__\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/natworld\/nation_2__hidden__\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On Monday, a worker installing a home security system at James Archinaco&#8217;s house found the animal lounging in a crawl space.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He came up, and he was like, &#8216;Mr. Jason, you have a mountain lion in your house!&#8217; And that&#8217;s where it all started,&#8221; Archinaco said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, wildlife officials were throwing beanbags and tennis balls at the lion known as P-22, trying to flush him out as TV news photographers jockeyed for position. Within hours, the event was being broadcast live.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"0\" height=\"0\" style=\"border: 0px currentColor; vertical-align: bottom; display: none; visibility: hidden;\" id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/natworld\/nation_3__hidden__\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/natworld\/nation_3__hidden__\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The lion, meanwhile, remained indifferent until everyone eventually gave up and left. Then he did, too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He felt safe in that hole. But once everyone took off last night, the lion removed himself and probably went back to his natural habitat,&#8221; said Lt. J. C. Healy of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>Although he generally keeps to himself, it was far from the mountain lion&#8217;s first encounter with humans.<\/p>\n<p>He was captured when the tag was put on, and he&#8217;s been treated successfully for mange. All of that might have given him more skill at evading capture again.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"0\" height=\"0\" style=\"border: 0px currentColor; vertical-align: bottom; display: none; visibility: hidden;\" id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/natworld\/nation_4__hidden__\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/4011\/trb.latimes\/news\/natworld\/nation_4__hidden__\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Wildlife officials have used remote cameras to study the lion&#8217;s behavior since discovering him in the park in March 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being in the heart of the city, Griffith Park is not an altogether unusual place for a mountain lion to take up residence. With more than 50 miles of hiking trails that wind through chaparral-covered canyons and over hillsides, it bills itself as the largest urban wilderness in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, it backs up against neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar hillside homes with killer views. If P-22 looked to his right when he exited that crawl space, he would have seen much of Hollywood laid out before him.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s most amazing about the animal&#8217;s tenure in the park, however, is that he somehow got there by crossing Interstate 405 and U.S. Route 101 \u2014 two of the nation&#8217;s busiest freeways.<\/p>\n<p>Native to North America, mountain lions once roamed much of the country but have been eliminated by hunters and ranchers in all but the West and Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Some 5,000 exist in California, according to the Bureau of Land Management. They&#8217;re usually found in the state&#8217;s coastal mountains, Sierra Nevada and southern deserts.<\/p>\n<p>Griffith Park is at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, which extend west to the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>During his time in the park, P-22 apparently has existed on mule deer, raccoon and coyote.<\/p>\n<p>Mountain lion attacks on people are extremely rare, with the state wildlife agency documenting only 14 since 1986, three of which were fatal. California&#8217;s last deadly mountain lion attack was in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Archinaco indicated he didn&#8217;t really mind having P-22 as a houseguest, though he&#8217;s just as happy the lion took off.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In one way, you want him to be gone in the sense that then everybody leaves, all the news media leaves,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>See also&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"trb_search_result_title\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-famed-p22-mountain-lion-found-under-los-feliz-home-owner-says-20150413-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">P-22 vacates home, heads back to Griffith Park, wildlife officials say<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cougar flees crawl space of Loz Feliz home after officials clear area Source of this article: The A celebrity mountain lion transformed a wealthy hillside neighborhood into a paparazzi-like scene of scrambling photographers before eluding everyone Tuesday and quietly slipping away. The 125-pound beast, easily recognizable by the collar and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,27,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-los-angeles","category-mountain-lions","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3543,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions\/3543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}