Requiescant in pace, P-22.
A lot has been written about the late P-22, eloquently, and I can’t presume to add to that here. I do think public consciousness about pumas in the Santa Monica Mountains has increased exponentially in the last few weeks, and years. On February 4th there was a sold-out celebration of life at the Greek Theatre. The day prior, Congressman Adam Schiff (now running for Senator) formally requested the Postal Service to issue a stamp in P-22’s honor. February 4th’s L.A. Times featured a front-page, above-the-fold story headlined “Big Cats Suffer an Alarming Rate of Roadkills.” P-22, of course, was hit by a car before he had to be euthanized.
I have long been fascinated by mountain lions. They are among the most elusive creatures in the mountains you will ever (or never) see. In 46 years of trail-running and hiking, I have had only one encounter, if you can call it that. I was on an obscure trail in the Palisades Highlands, running down towards the coast, and 20 yards or so in front of me what looked like a dog-sized coyote emerged from the brush and trotted away. Except it didn’t have a furry bushy tail, it was a tubular tail. At once I realized this was no coyote. Whoa! I was taken aback!
Years ago, this Task Force made one of the first financial contributions to what is now the Wallis Annenberg Overpass on the 101 Freeway by Liberty Canyon. One of the first contributions. Let us hope and pray that, when completed, this will enable pumas, and other critters, to mix with genetic partners all the way up through the Los Padres National Forest, and promote the diversity of these endangered animals.
P-22 famously crossed two freeways, the 405 and the 101, to make it into Griffith Park, where it seems he had the whole turf to himself. And he was equally famously photographed with the Hollywood Sign in the background. Most are not so fortunate. When I open the morning paper and read about yet another puma-strike on one of our highways, I inwardly groan. Scientists say that if this trajectory doesn’t change, pumas may be extinct in these mountains in 50 years.
Someone once told the 1930s humorist Will Rogers that animals have no (human) “soul” and therefore cannot go to heaven. His response: “Well, I guess if animals can’t go to heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they go.”
Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force