Bringing the 'Wild King' home: P-22 mountain lion statue coming to Griffith Park
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Set us as preferred Angelenos who miss P-22, a beloved mountain lion who lived in the heart of Los Angeles for more than a decade, will be able to see him again — in bronze — as a statue is set to be unveiled at Griffith Park.The statue, which was created by Los Angeles-based artist Adam Matano, will live at the Griffith Park Visitors Center, the National Wildlife Federation and Friends of Griffith Park announced in a Thursday news release.
It will create a space inside the park, P-22’s former home, where people will be able to visit and pay remembrance.Matano beat out dozens of other artists to secure the commission to create the sculpture and, after many months, has completed a preliminary clay art form, according to the release.
A bronze version of the statue, titled “Earth to City: Rhapsody of the Wild King,” will be installed in Griffith Park at a date yet to be announced.Matano said in the release that the inspiration behind the title of the work was “[t]he idea of the wild entering Los Angeles and awakening the city to the nature already within it; creating a sweeping, emotional composition rather than a conventional memorial; and transforming P-22 into a king not because he dominated the territory but rather because he lived according to his own nature and captured the heart of a city.”P-22 became the face of an international campaign to save Southern California’s threatened pumas when, in December 2022, he was captured by the National Park Service and the state’s wildlife department.
P-22 was showing increasing “signs of stress,” including three attacks on dogs within a month and near-encounters with people in Los Feliz and Silver Lake.He was humanely euthanized by wildlife officials later that same month.
Officials said he had several long-term health concerns and injuries that likely stemmed...