P-22 will be remembered with a permanent marker in Griffith Park, where he roamed for more than a decade. (photo courtesy of NPS)

The Los Angeles City Council adopted a motion on May 8 to formulate plans to create a permanent memorial for the mountain lion P-22 in his long-time home of Griffith Park.

P-22 was euthanized in December after suffering from severe health issues. The mountain lion was the internationally recognized face of the conservation campaign #SaveLACougars, and became a local celebrity in Los Angeles. The motion, authored by Councilwoman Nithya Raman, 4th District, instructs the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks to create an ad hoc committee of the Griffith Park Advisory Board to determine the location and design of a permanent memorial to P-22. The ad hoc committee will be composed of city personnel and private stakeholders.

“I had the great honor of representing the area where P-22 lived in Council District Four, where he achieved celebrity status after completing an Odyssey-like journey, crossing the 405 and the 101, and trekking over 20 miles to reach his new home of Griffith Park over a decade ago,” Raman said. “It only makes sense that we pay tribute to his legacy with a permanent memorial on his home turf, where visitors can come pay their respects and learn more about his invaluable contributions to wildlife conservation. P-22 was important to so many Angelenos, and I’m looking forward to the results of a participatory, community-driven process to determine what that permanent memorial will look like.”

“You can’t over-memorialize P-22. He was such a beloved cat by people not just in Los Angeles but around the world, and it’s wonderful to see the desire to create lasting places where people can celebrate P-22’s life and their personal connections to him,” said Beth Pratt, California regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation, and leader of the #SaveLACougars campaign. “Of course, nowhere is more appropriate than Griffith Park, his home for over a decade.”