Here, Kitty, Kitty. Psspsspss.

On the eve of my first day in the park, during a wildlife drive, I lamented the lack of wildlife sightings. All of the park’s communications warn visitors to be prepared for encountering wildlife while hiking. One hundred yards into any trail is this warning sign.The massive 2017 Kenow Fire razed the dense forests, resulting in extensive sightlines. And yet.

Stuck in My Head

I passed by a small gathering of photographers with their big lenses pointed at a black bear high up on a slope. He was too far away, and, honestly, I’m beyond fortunate to be spoiled by previous, intimate bear encounters.

I’d come here to help reset my head. It’d been way too long since I’d been able to wander the wilderness in this way that feeds my soul, and there’s a lot of stress at home. I craved some forest bathing!

Here’s Your Sign

I was having a hard time shedding the stress. “I’ve lost my wildlife mojo,” I said to myself. The wild is responding to my negative energy, I thought as I rounded a bend to see the unmistakable long tail of a mountain lion crossing the road. A wild, North American mountain lion!!

I stopped in the road and activated my flashers while simultaneously grabbing my binoculars. I didn’t expect to locate the ghost cat, master of camouflage, in the low aspens and serviceberry bushes. But there he was. Standing broadside. This magnificent, muscular tomcat looking back at me.

I’ve spent a lot of time in mountain lion territory. I’ve seen tracks, scat, and sign. One delightful winter day, I heard a cougar calling to her kittens. I’m sure plenty of wild cats have seen me. But, until now, I’d never seen one in North America. Ghost cats!

I quickly exchanged the binoculars for my camera. The puma made some assessment of me and turned to pad up the burnt hillside. He moseyed, moving at a relaxed walk, stopping to look around, gently wagging the tip of that long feline tail, doing all the cat things. I reveled in this magical, solitary moment. 

As I watched him disappear and reappear through trees and brush, he crouched below a boulder and scrunched his ears out to the side. The stealthy cat pose. I thought he might be stalking a hare.

It was at this moment that I heard a car approaching. I am stopped in the lane of traffic below a blind curve. I started the car and crept forward with my eyes on the rear-view mirror. In the car behind me, one of the photographers I’d passed activated her flashers, and we both stopped.

I glassed and glassed the hillside but could not find the cougar. The person behind me had their big lens out the window, focused on the slope. I scanned the area where she was looking, astonished that she had found this elusive cat so quickly, when I’d been watching him and can’t find him. Only then do I realize that she’s photographing a black bear higher up the hillside to the left. To the right, a cinnamon-phase black bear is ambling along the hillside toward the other bear. This must be what caught the mountain lion’s attention, causing him to crouch. Bears and cats don’t play well together. I’m sure “my” cat is long gone now.

Still in Awe

When I got home, I checked the time stamps on my images. I spent almost five minutes with this elegant, wild cougar. FIVE MINUTES! A glimpse is a gift. I don’t even know what to call this—unreal, unbelievable, blessed, connection, becoming.

The image of that lion crossing the road when I first saw him is seared in my mind. Today, I’m the luckiest girl in the world.

If you’re interested in purchasing or licensing any images you see here, please email me at SNewenham at exploringnaturephotos.com, and I’ll make it happen.

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The post Ghost Cat Revealed appeared first on Exploring Nature by Sheila Newenham.

-Miguel Ordenana

In 2012, a biologist’s camera trap in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park caught an unexpected sight. A mountain lion! Griffith Park is akin to Central Park in New York, but a bit more wild. No one expected it could be wild enough to be home to a mountain lion for TEN years.

Male mountain lions leave their natal home ranges at about two years of age to seek their own territories. They can roam a great distance in their search (one exceptional lion walked 1500 miles from South Dakota to Connecticut). It’s nature’s way of preventing inbreeding. P-22 is the first in recent times to successfully cross the 405’s twelve lanes of traffic and Highway 101’s ten lanes of traffic to migrate from the Santa Monica mountains into L.A. Other cats have tried only to be struck and killed on the roadways.

No one thought he would stay. The biologists clung to every camera trap sighting, fearing it might be the last they’d see of him. Yet, he stayed. He arrived as a two-year-old and coexisted peacefully among people and pets in a park that is just eight square miles. That is less than one-tenth the size of an average male mountain lion’s 100-150 square mile range. He was initially captured and collared in 2012 as the 22nd puma collared by the National Park Service, thus dubbed P-22.

P-22 lived among horseback riders, joggers, dog walkers, athletic fields, a renowned Observatory, and the L.A. Zoo with only a rare direct sighting. Until he fell ill at twelve years old, his only transgression was likely a koala at the zoo. P-22 is the prime suspect in the koala’s disappearance.

In December 2022, wildlife officials decided to capture P-22 for a full assessment after he had begun wandering into residential neighborhoods and preying on pets. This atypical behavior was alarming, and officials were concerned he might be ill. At twelve, he’s an old lion. A full veterinary exam, blood tests, ultrasound and CT imaging revealed that he had recently been hit by a car. He had damage to one eye and a diaphragmatic hernia (blunt force can cause a hole in the diaphragm allowing the intestines into the chest). He also had liver and kidney disease. It was all too much. He would require surgery to repair the hole in his diaphragm, but he would still be hampered by organ failures that, under the best of circumstances, would prevent him from being re-released. P-22’s team of veterinarians from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Park made the unanimous, heart-wrenching recommendation for euthanasia. P-22 was so loved in the Los Angeles area that tickets to his Celebration of Life Memorial crashed Ticketmaster and sold out in a matter of hours. The February 4, 2023 event will be live-streamed for all those who can’t attend (details are not yet available).

Miguel Ordenana, the biologist whose camera trap first caught P-22, and members of several local Native tribes brought P-22’s remains to the Los Angeles Nature History Museum. Upon arrival, the Tribal representatives led a blessing ceremony welcoming P-22 back to his homeland where he can be visited by those whose lives he touched and continue to be an ambassador for all wildlife. 

P-22 is the world’s most famous mountain lion. He is an ambassador for the species and wildlife living among people. It’s amazing what tolerance, understanding, and coexistence can bring! Here are some resources about P-22 and how you can help mountain lions to thrive peacefully among us.

When Mountain Lions are Neighbors: People and wildlife working it out in California by Beth Pratt-Bergstrom (book)

P-22: The Life & Death of an L.A. Cougar with Miguel Ordeñana & Beth Pratt (podcast)

https://cougarfund.org

/https://mountainlion.org

/https://panthera.org

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The post P-22: The World’s Most Famous Mountain Lion appeared first on Exploring Nature by Sheila Newenham.