‘He changed us’: Los Angeles mourns celebrity mountain lion P-22

P-22’s death prompts outpouring of grief and respect for the wild influencer who ‘captivated the world’

He was a symbol, the face of a campaign, a subject of songs and an inspiration for an entire city. But P-22 – the most famous mountain lion in Los Angeles, and quite possibly the world – was also just a cat, and the cat had gotten very old.

In the end, he was undone by the very city that loved him. Marooned in a park surrounded by urban neighborhoods and freeways, without access to his natural range or the prospect of a mate, he grew infirm and began acting erratically. On Saturday, after bringing him in for a health check, wildlife officials took the difficult step of euthanizing him.