Althouse: “This is a natural park and home to many species of wildlife. We will continue to adapt to P-22.”

March 24, 2016

“This is a natural park and home to many species of wildlife. We will continue to adapt to P-22.”

P-22 is a mountain lion that lives in Griffith Park in L.A.

It had a lot of fans, but then it killed a koala. Or so it is believed? Who else could have jumped the 9-foot zoo wall?

30 comments:

Ann Althouse said...: P-22
Had plenty to do
Like jump the wall o'
The home of koala.; 3/24/16, 9:01 AM
traditionalguy said...: The need for Safari Jeeps like Jurassic Park is back. The WILD life is king again.

Isn't that special.; 3/24/16, 9:05 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: Griffith Park is hardly natural. Slightly more natural than my lawn.; 3/24/16, 9:05 AM
Michael said...: HA! God, but i love these stories of man against beast and beast we want to pet getting devoured by beast we want to feed. Hilarious stuff. Tough shit for the Koala living up there in Los Angeles. LOL.; 3/24/16, 9:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: There's a hierarchy of animals, and koalas are near the top. Humans are not but fuzzy animals that seem rather human are loved with a love that we can deny is self-love.

P-22 threatened the children, and the humans took it in stride. But when he killed the koala, that crossed a line.; 3/24/16, 9:17 AM
Carter Wood said...: But did P-22 actually eat the koala? I would think they'd taste like a mentholated cough-drop.; 3/24/16, 9:19 AM
Big Mike said...: “If we get rid of him, what next?” Mr. Ryu said. “Do we get rid of all the coyotes? They prey on raccoons. Then do we get rid of the raccoons? Where do you draw the line?”

The LA residents, and the officials taking their cue from the residents, seem awfully blasé about the possibility of P-22 discovering how tasty human children are. Because that's probably "what next."; 3/24/16, 9:22 AM
Henry said...: Darn it, Althouse, you beat me to it.

P-22
Does what he do
Adapting's what we
all do for P.; 3/24/16, 9:26 AM
Henry said...: P-22
Considers the zoo.
Adapting is for
the non-carnivore.; 3/24/16, 9:28 AM
John Scott said...: Griffith park contains two golf courses, an arena (Greek Theater), the zoo, park areas and miniature trains, but it stretches up and over the Santa Monica Mountains from Burbank in the San Fernando Valley to Los Feliz in LA city proper. Most of it is pretty darn natural.

A couple of years ago a mountain lion was found roaming the streets of Santa Monica. I believe they killed that one.

Once on the way to launch, hang gliding, we had a lion jump in front of our truck. He stayed in front of us for about 100 yards before jumping back into the brush. It was an amazing sight.; 3/24/16, 9:34 AM
Bob Boyd said...: P-22
If not you, who?
It's the look on your face
And the tracks in Koala Safe Space; 3/24/16, 9:45 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Carter Wood said, "But did P-22 actually eat the koala? I would think they'd taste like a mentholated cough-drop."

That's a good point. For those who don't know eucalyptus trees and shrubs: these plants do tend to smell strongly like menthol.

Burning eucalyptus leaves smell just like marijuana.

A proper test would involve burning a koala carcass and putting a team of people from Colorado, Washington, and California around the smoldering remains. You want some with nasal congestion and some with regular weed habits. Then quiz them on what they smelled and how it affected them.; 3/24/16, 9:47 AM
Anonymous said...: P-22 is in fact a Puma (Puma concolor) also known as a Cougar, and Mountain Lion,; 3/24/16, 9:59 AM
Fernandinande said...: Roger Sweeny said...
Griffith Park is hardly natural. Slightly more natural than my lawn.

You know you're a redneck if you cut your lawn and find a mountain lion.; 3/24/16, 10:03 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Once on the way to launch, hang gliding, we had a lion jump in front of our truck. He stayed in front of us for about 100 yards before jumping back into the brush. It was an amazing sight.

We had that happen one night in Alaska. We were driving to a bed and breakfast (without power) by the Wrangle St. Elias National Park, maybe an hour after dusk, and all of a sudden we came up behind a bear ambling down the road. We hung back for maybe 5 minutes, before it jumped off the road. Kinda neat, but looking back wished I had had my bear gun at the time, JIC.; 3/24/16, 10:18 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Build a bigger wall around the zoo - keep out the illegal aliens from Mexico and the mountain lions!; 3/24/16, 10:20 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Closest I have ever probably come to a mountain lion on a regular basis was when we were living west of Denver, up in the mountains. Neighbor downhill told us that he was seeing one come through his property, and up through ours every night about dusk. There was a gully running up behind both properties (maybe 20-30 feet to the west of the house in our case) that it used. He had a dog/wolf mix that didn't bark, but alerted instead, and he would follow it in the scope of his rifle every night. Turned out that it was taking dogs a couple miles to the east on Lookout Mountain. It finally took one that was too large to carry, and it left a track as it dragged the dog back to its lair (which turned out to be less than a quarter mile downhill from us), and was taken, apparently because if it was coming in close enough to humans to take dogs, it was losing its fear of us.

We had a big porch around the house, designed to highlight the Continental Divide maybe 40 miles to the west. It was one of the best views, and in the cloudless Colorado summer, was a great place to hang out with my kid, who was a couple years old at the time. I made sure that I had my shotgun close when we were out there, or were taking walks in the evening.; 3/24/16, 10:30 AM
Meade said...: P-22
just who do you
think you are that you can swalla'
an entire koala?; 3/24/16, 10:36 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Oh, P22
Oh, P22
Oh, P22, baby I love you,
P22

I like the way you stalk...; 3/24/16, 10:44 AM
Anthony said...: Just last night I was looking at one of about a dozen cute friendly animal buddy pictures/videos people had posted on Facebook show how all these cute furry critters can get along so why can't we? and thought: "Yeah. . . .and for every one of those you could post a thousand of one animal ripping another to shreds for a meal."; 3/24/16, 10:47 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Just last night I was looking at one of about a dozen cute friendly animal buddy pictures/videos people had posted on Facebook show how all these cute furry critters can get along so why can't we? and thought: "Yeah. . . .and for every one of those you could post a thousand of one animal ripping another to shreds for a meal."

Which is fine with me, as long as the ripped animals are not people I know, or pets I love.; 3/24/16, 11:25 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: Bob Ellison, Wow. Just, Wow.; 3/24/16, 11:31 AM
glenn said...: P-22 Sez:

I gotta be me
I gotta be me.; 3/24/16, 11:33 AM
BarrySanders20 said...: “If we get rid of him, what next?” Mr. Ryu said. “Do we get rid of all the coyotes? They prey on raccoons. Then do we get rid of the raccoons? Where do you draw the line?”

"Catch 22," they all reply.; 3/24/16, 12:08 PM
Rusty said...: Meade said...
P-22
just who do you
think you are that you can swalla'
an entire koala?

Hiking up in the hills around LosAgeles and Orange county you sometimes come across pet collars that are still closed.
So it's good to know that the cougars are adapting to the environment.
And I don't mean the ones by the pool.
(rimshot); 3/24/16, 12:14 PM
Meade said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/24/16, 12:51 PM
Meade said...: Secret P-22
Secret P-22
Well they’ve a given you a numbah
and taken ‘way your koalah; 3/24/16, 12:53 PM
n.n said...: The Africans feel the same way about #CecilTheLion that killed cute little creatures for sport and meal. Many Americans feels the same way about #CecileTheCannibal that kills human babies for population control, and their profitable little parts.; 3/24/16, 1:53 PM
Fritz said...: I'll bet Koalas taste bad from all the eucalyptus they eat. They certainly smell bad.; 3/24/16, 4:30 PM
Gahrie said...: @n.n.:

OK..that was actually your best post in a while.

You do realize you can post a comment without referring to abortion...right?; 3/24/16, 5:29 PM