Los Angeles to memorialize late mountain lion P-22 with sculpture in Griffith Park
Los Angeles will install a bronze sculpture of the city’s most famous mountain lion, P-22, at the Griffith Park visitor center. The work is the creation of local artist Adam Matano, whose design captures the cougar in a poised, muscular stance.
The piece shows P-22 stepping down from a podium adorned with images of native Southern California animals onto a second perch surrounded by representations of local flora. Matano said he wanted to convey the idea of the wild entering Los Angeles and awakening the city to the nature already within it, turning the animal into a symbolic king who lived on his own terms.
The project, funded entirely by private philanthropy and championed by the National Wildlife Federation’s Safe LA Cougars campaign, follows the predator’s rise to fame after a photographer captured him against the Hollywood sign. His daring crossing of ten freeway lanes sparked the Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing, set to open in December as the world’s largest such structure, aiming to improve genetic diversity in the Santa Monica Mountains.
The new sculpture will serve as a permanent reminder of P-22’s legacy and the ongoing effort to reconcile urban life with the region’s wild inhabitants.