P-22 captured for check-up: looking good

P-22 in the wild in December. All photos by the National Park Service.

National Park Service scientists in December tracked down and sedated P-22, the adult male mountain lion who hangs out rather famously in and around Griffith Park. They needed to replace his GPS battery, but it also was a chance to check on his health. The park service is happy to report that the world's best-known and most-photographed urban puma has fully recovered from the bout of mange that left his coat looking pretty ragged in April 2014. Trail cameras had indicated by June 2014 that P-22 was looking better, but this was the first time that researchers had captured the lion since treating him for mange. The affliction, by the way, was worsened by P-22's exposure to rat poison in the Santa Monica Mountains environment. The park service says today that rat poisons have been detected in 12 of the 13 mountain lions tested.

From the NPS release:

"He’s gained some weight, his tail has filled out, and he no longer has skin lesions and scabs across his body and face,” said Jeff Sikich, a biologist with Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. “It’s highly likely that he continues to be exposed to rat poison, but for now he seems to be managing”...

Now approximately six years old, P-22 weighed 123 pounds, about 15 pounds heavier than at his last capture.

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A blood sample taken from P-22 at his April 2014 capture tested positive for exposure to diphacinone and chlorophacinone, two first-generation poisons. The retail sale of second-generation poisons was banned as of July 1, 2014, but they are still used by licensed applicators, and first-generation versions, like those found in P-22’s blood, remain widely available.

NPS researchers treated P-22 with selamectin, a topical treatment for ectoparasitic diseases such as mange, fleas, and ticks, in April of 2014.

P-22, you may remember, surprised the region's puma trackers in 2012 when he showed up unannounced on trail camera images in Griffith Park, the city's big mountain park between Los Feliz and the San Fernando Valley. DNA testing indicated that he came from the Santa Monica Mountains colony of lions, meaning he must have traversed both the 405 and 101 freeways (possibly via bridges) and several canyon roads to reach the park's wild chaparral. While in Griffith Park, he was famously photographed for the Dec. 2013 issue of National Geographic by Steve Winter, and last April P-22 was the subject of a media sensation when he holed up under a house in Los Feliz for a day then waited for the media horde to leave before returning to the park.

All photos from the National Park Service. Here are more on Flickr.

In the brush:

Before and after:

Sedated: