A year and a half since the death of L.A.’s beloved mountain lion P-22, it appears there's a new cat in the Griffith Park area.
Vladimir Polumiskov told KNX News’ Emily Valdez that he was pulling into his driveway in the Hollywood Hills near Griffith Park on Tuesday night when he saw the mountain lion.
“I go to the side door to get my son out of the car seat and for some reason, I decided to look to my left side since my headlights were still on and it was bright and approximately 15 ft away from me, I see a huge cat,” he said. “I was fortunate enough to see P-22, but this guy [was] at the same exact location, which is so ironic.”
He added that he saw the mountain lion not once, but twice.
“I have a video of the first encounter and then two hours later, I came back and the mountain lion was at the same location but already sitting on top of a tree on a tree trunk,” he said. “So I have multiple videos. I have three or four videos [and] photos. [It] almost looked like he was chilling and enjoying his day. He was just walking around.”
National Wildlife Federation's Beth Pratt said she's excited about the possibility of another mountain lion in Griffith Park.
“We're just trying to confirm if this cat is indeed in the Griffith Park area, but it looks like it,” she said. “And I will say it just, you know, P-22 I think is still very much with us. People miss him. So that another cat has made its way to Griffith Park, both really excites me and gives me hope, but also makes me nervous. This urban environment is really hard on these animals.”
Wildlife officials told Emily Valdez they do plan to catch and collar this cat, who may end up being P-122 because that's where they're at in the numbers.
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