Nearly A Year After His Death, The Spirit Of P-22 Lives On

Griffith Park is celebrating its most influential transplant.

A native son who made the trek from the Santa Monica Mountains to his new digs by crossing the 101 and the 405 — and in so doing inspired Los Angeles to dream the impossible dream of building the world's biggest freeway overpass for animals to use, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

"We were told we were crazy, and here we are. It's underway," said Beth Pratt. "It actually started because of the P-22 story and the effect it had on me."

A rendering of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, slated for completion in 2025.

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Courtesy of National Wildlife Foundation

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Pratt leads the Save LA Cougars campaign, which helps support efforts to get the historic wildlife crossing built. The organization is also behind the annual P-22 Day Festival at Griffith Park, where all of Los Angeles is invited to celebrate the city's urban wildlife and its titular king.

L.A.'s Lion King

Like the majority of the city, Pratt first heard about P-22 in 2012, shortly after she started working with the National Wildlife Federation.

P-22 Day Festival is this Sunday. It's the first time the festival is held after the death of P-22.

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Courtesy of Save LA Cougars

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"I couldn't believe the headlines I was reading that a mountain lion had made a home in Griffith Park," she said.

She learned from biologists working in the area about the plight of P-22 — having arrived after a treacherous journey in Griffith Park only to be trapped there.

"It wasn't just P-22, there were mountain lions all around the Santa Monica Mountains that were facing the same struggle. I asked that day how I could help."

More than a decade later, Pratt and Save LA Cougars have raised some $100 millions toward the construction of the wildlife crossing near the Liberty Canyon exit on the 101.

The project broke ground last year. Currently, Caltrans crews are putting up the support system on both sides of the freeway for the bridge to be placed across early next year.

The entire crossing is set for completion in 2025.

Caltrans workers working on the construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing

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Courtesy of Caltrans

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Another view

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Courtesy of Caltrans

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P-22 Day Festival

The campaign raised its first million dollars back in 2015 to gather environmental documents, what Pratt called "a really boring phase" of the project. To keep momentum going, she came up with the idea for a festival to celebrate P-22 and L.A.

"Anywhere else in the country, this cat would have been removed or shot immediately upon detection. [But] L.A. rallied around him and said, 'No, he belongs here. He's our hero.' That's unprecedented," Pratt said.

Beth Pratt at the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing groundbreaking celebration on April 22, 2022 in Agoura Hills, California.

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Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

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Getty Images North America

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Tomorrow marks the eighth annual P-22 Day Festival at Griffith Park — and the first without its guiding light, the mountain lion himself. He died in December after exhibiting a series of erratic behaviors indicating ill health.

Pratt was with the big cat before he was put down. He hissed at her, she says, before coming to lay down close to her, with just the metal bars separating them.

"I could feel his breath on me," she said. "There'll never be another P-22. He was one of a kind."

What's next

The loss of its inimitable symbol has not derailed its mission. Just this week, "Save LA Cougars" launched what it's calling the "P-22 legacy" phase of the campaign — to raise $15 million to ensure the completion of the Wallis Annenberg crossing, to fund additional research, and to build other animal bridges in Southern California.

"I was thinking about other celebrities that have stayed with us like Marilyn Monroe or James Dean or Jim Morrison. I think [P-22 is] one of them," said Pratt. "He meant so much to people, he is continuing to be missed and that is good things for wildlife."

Long live P-22.

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Courtesy of Johanna Turner

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In P-22, the king of L.A.

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Courtesy of Steve Winter

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