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New trail camera video of P-22 shows the young male cougar is mostly over the mange that alarmed researchers earlier in the year. His hair has grown back in and he looks healthier. "His face has improved. His fur is filled in; the crustiness over his eyes has gone. The lesions on his face, neck area and ears from scratching so much due to the dehydration of his skin has kind of improved," said Miguel Ordeñana, the wildlife biologist whose project first discovered that P-22, bred in the western Santa Monica Mountains, had reached Griffith Park. P-22 was captured back in March and treated for mange and exposure to rodenticides.
The new videos show P-22 moving through Griffith Park in daylight — in one of them he carries a raccoon carcass. "His GPS locations continue to show a healthy range of movement and a desire to stick to the most natural areas of the park, so this new daytime video is one more piece of the picture," Kate Kuykendall, spokeswoman for the National Park Service at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, told KPCC.
