He was called the King of Griffith Park, the Brad Pitt of cougars and Los Angeles’ mascot.
More than 5,000 people celebrated the life of mountain lion P-22 on Saturday at a legendary amphitheater in the Hollywood Hills where the precocious feline roamed for the past decade.
It was a sendoff fit for his star status, with top wildlife officials, politicians and celebrities feting the cougar who died last month after being struck by a car.
LOS ANGELES MOURNS THE DEATH OF P-22 WITH MEMORIALS PLANNED
“He was our favorite celebrity neighbor, an occasional troublemaker and a beloved mascot for the city,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told the crowd. “It was a pleasure being P-22’s representative in Congress. We need to protect more of the public wilderness lands P-22 called home.”
Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, who said she was P-22’s state representative, said he was beloved for being “scrappy and sexy, but kind of bad and naughty.”
P-22 was once believed to have attacked a koala in the neighboring Los Angeles Zoo.
The event was nearly four hours long – a mix of music, reflection, education, and urgings by politicians that society needs to do more to save wildlife increasingly intermingled with the populated cities because of shrinking habitats.
P-22 was a reflection of Los Angeles: a quirky story of a mountain lion who defied the odds by crossing two of the nation’s busiest freeways only to live out his years hemmed in by the urban landscape. He never had a mate during his decade of roaming Griffith Park’s 4,200 acres.
Only in Los Angeles would residents be delighted by having a wild animal living alongside them, the guests said.
“He’d swing by my place every 2-3 weeks,” reflected local resident Michael McMahan. “We were just two aging bachelors roaming the Hollywood Hills.”
McMahan captured numerous photos of P-22 with an outdoor camera, creating the Facebook page Cougarmagic.
P-22’s foray into the celebrity world came when National Geographic photographer Steve Winter photographed the cat strolling the mountainside in the glare of the Hollywood lights below. One iconic photo shows the Hollywood sign in the distance.
While Winter said Saturday that it took him 11 months to capture photographs of P-22 with a remote camera, a National Parks Service biologist reflected on how he followed the cat’s movements every day over the past decade because he was wearing a tracking device. P-22 was part of a federal protection program for pumas.
“I captured him seven times [for observation]. Together we played this cat and mouse game,” said NPS biologist Jeff Sikich. “It parroted scenes from Hollywood movies: hanging out under the Hollywood sign; exploring LA mansions, being under pursuit by news crews.”
It was amazing that P-22 lived 10 years among Los Angeles residents, wildlife officials said during the ceremony. He was seen on hundreds of surveillance cameras strolling through neighbors but never harmed any residents.
His tragic story has prompted a public-private partnership to fund the world’s largest wildlife crossing over one of the 10-lane freeways that P-22 managed to traverse.
Gov. Gavin Newsom filmed an announcement for the event talking about the success of the project, which broke ground last year. The state allocated $10 million for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing and will now dedicate another $100 million for additional crossing statewide.
The Annenberg Foundation announced during the ceremony that it has put up another $25 million to jumpstart more projects, with the hope of receiving matching funds.
But while the event had a serious undertone, it also provided upbeat moments as well with music. “The Office” actor Rainn Wilson and hip hop musician Warren Wilson both performed songs that they wrote in P-22’s honor.
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“P-22, P-22, you left behind a lot of friends and cougar poo,” Wilson sang.
Perhaps the most fitting tribute came from the descendants of the 1960s pop group the Tokens, who have continued to perform the group’s hits songs under the same name.
They received cheers and a standing ovation for paying their biggest hit — The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
