What to Know
- P-22 Celebration of Life
- Saturday, Feb. 4 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park
- The ceremony will honor the recently passed mountain lion, an iconic animal that brought urban wildlife to the forefront of public discourse
More tickets are available; a live stream will also be available.
Tracks left by a mountain lion, a magnificent animal roaming the scrubby lands of their natural habitat, can tell a tale from the recent past.
The pawprints show just where the big cat has been, the places he paused along the way, even the spots where he chose to rest.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
But one particular puma showed a rather special ability during his celebrated life: P-22's tracks extended far into the future, giving those people eager to support urban wildlife a clear path to follow.
The big cat, famous for roaming Griffith Park and sometimes its nearby neighborhoods, was captured and ultimately euthanized in December 2022, a decision made by a team after considering his numerous health issues, including recent injuries that possibly stemmed from a car collision.
But P-22's moving story didn't end on Dec. 17; rather, he's an icon that inspired Los Angeles, California, and urban wildlife advocates around the world.
To pay tribute to that legacy, a P-22 Celebration of Life will be held at the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park on the first Saturday in February.
Tickets became available on Jan. 9 at 9 a.m.; entry is free, and everyone must show a ticket to attend (there's a four-ticket limit, do keep in mind).
Parking is $20.
The noontime celebration will be live-streamed, too, should you prefer to look on from home or somewhere beyond Los Angeles.
A number of destinations around the region are remembering P-22 in different ways. Visitors to Los Angeles Zoo may leave their respects at an interactive tribute wall through Jan. 17; find it just outside the animal park's entrance.