The cougar got caught in the Tesla's headlights. Vladimir Polumiskov moved quickly and slowly, so as not to attract attention.
He put his two-year-old son back in the car seat, got behind the wheel, and quietly closed the door. His wife, Anastasiia Prokopenko, was in the passenger seat; She couldn't believe what they were seeing.
“No way. No way,” he said. “Get in the car. Get in the car.”
The family, who had just returned from a sushi dinner Tuesday night, had parked at their apartment complex on Barham Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills. Living on the western edge of Griffith Park, they were accustomed to seeing wildlife (coyotes, bobcats, deer, foxes) roaming their backyard. But a cougar was extreme.
“We're not going out,” Prokopenko said.
Less than 13 feet away, the cat sat on the low-angled trunk of an oak tree, partially hidden by undergrowth, its blonde fur highlighted by the bright lights. Polumiskov, 30, took the phone from him and began recording videos.
“This guy was huge,” he said.
Although the sighting has not been confirmed by the National Park Service, which oversees the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and has also studied wildlife in the 4,000-acre Griffith Park, the possibility of a mountain lion making its home on this wild island can give many Angelenos a new feeling of déjà vu.
Griffith Park's king cougar, a cat known as P-22, roamed these hills for 10 years. Captured in December 2022, he was euthanized after a team of doctors determined that, due to internal injuries and infections, he was too ill to return to the wild.
A few months earlier, Polumiskov said he had seen P-22 hanging around the same parking lot before running away. “I had the same reaction then,” he said. “That doesn't change. “It was shocking.”
“Los Angeles misses P-22,” said Beth Pratt of the National Wildlife Federation, perhaps its most ardent supporter.
In February 2023, Pratt helped organize a sold-out celebration of his improbable life in Griffith Park at the Greek Theater, attracting more than 6,000 people who wanted to pay their respects to the charismatic cat who, surrounded by housing projects, highways and cemeteries, he lived in peace. in downtown Los Angeles.
Seven months later, the official eighth annual P-22 Day festival attracted 15,000 attendees.
When Pratt first heard about this new sighting, she felt a little overwhelmed.
“It does my heart good,” he said. “It seemed as if P-22 had sent someone back to us, just to keep hope alive that we hadn't completely banished the wildness from our lives.”
The National Park Service, which has reviewed Polumiskov's video, is taking the claim seriously, according to spokeswoman Ana Beatriz Cholo.
The park service has been studying the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains since 2002, when it collared its first mountain lion, which was given the name P-1 (P for puma). Since then, he has tracked and collared 121 animals throughout the park.
If you put a collar on it, the big cat in last week's video would be P-122.
Video of a cougar seen Tuesday near Barnham Boulevard in Toluca Hills, New Hollywood. (Vladmir Polumisko)
“I'm a scientist at heart, but there's something almost mystical about this,” Pratt said, referring to the coincidental possibility that the two cats in Griffith Park shared such a similar number.
Park Service investigators are conducting interviews and reviewing footage from wildlife cameras located throughout Griffith Park.
“Obviously we want to make sure we confirm that this is real,” Cholo said. “Hopefully we will get it in the near future.”
But hope aside, he added, there's no guarantee the cougar will stay here. Cougars need up to 200 square miles of habitat, and Griffith Park offers a little more than eight.
After recording the video, Polumiskov put the Tesla in reverse and found another parking spot away from the cougar. Two hours later, he returned with a friend and the cat was still there.
“He was still sitting in that tree, looking at us,” she said. “It's a beautiful, beautiful, young, healthy animal, maybe the biggest mountain lion I've ever seen in my life.”
Four months earlier, Polumiskov had seen, while driving, what he believed was also a mountain lion. But without proof, his family and friends doubted him. He now he had something more tangible.
The next day, he received a call from Jeff Sikich, a park service wildlife biologist and cougar specialist, who asked him a few simple questions (where and when) and reminded him to be safe.
“He definitely educated me,” Polumiskov said.
“While it is exciting to see a wild animal,” said Cholo, “if you see a puma, give it space. Don't follow him. As tempting as it may be, this is a big cat and his behavior can be unpredictable.”
The total number of mountain lions in California is estimated to be between 3,200 and 4,500. About a dozen cats are said to live in the Santa Monica Mountains and are at risk of extinction due to their low genetic diversity.
Current construction of a wildlife corridor on a 10-lane stretch of Highway 101 in Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills promises to be a critical lifeline for endangered species. When completed in 2026, it will be the largest (200 feet long and 165 feet wide) and most expensive bridge of its kind in the world.
“The Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing is critical” to the survival of the species, Pratt said. “But Griffith Park also needs safe routes for wildlife trying to navigate the city.”
