Downtown Los Angeles is blessed with the largest urban Park in the USA----Griffith Park in Burbank has been home to one of the dozen Pumas that still call Los Angeles home.............Name d P-22, this "cat" had come down with mange after ingesting rodenticide, likely in the bloodstream of some smaller mammal that it had eaten.............We have discussed many times on ths Blog that when people put out bait traps with poison designed to kill rodents outside of their homes and businesses, there is dire consequences for larger animals like Coyotes, Foxes and Pumas as the poison move up the food chain..................Thankfully, P-22 seems to be recovering from his bout with the poison and while he is landlocked and without female companiionship due to the crisscrossing freeways of L.A. preventing movement onto his turf, at least he seems to be eating well and looking vibrant.................Next step is for a wildlife under/overpass to be constructed at the Chesboro exit on the 101 freeway, the last remaining spot between downtown L.A. and Santa Barbara where open space exists on both sides of the freeway...........Hopefully funds get allocated for this culvert which would allow for Pumas and Coyotes to traverse from the Pacific Ocean inland, perhaps allowing P-22 to find a mate

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://laist.com/2014/12/04/photos_griffith_parks_mountain_lion.php&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoUMTczNjA3MjAzMDMzNDY0MzM1NjQyGjQ2OTIwYTk2ZWZjMTE1ODg6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNHD2ROJXYzzUQ_HQVp15PMak8qTNw

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P-22's whiskers are looking healthy again, 
which is
 a sign of recovery
 from mange (Photo via Santa Monica
 Mountains National Recreation Area)

    Griffith Park's mountain lion, dubbed
 P-22, has had quite a journey over
 the past year. Ever since a National 
Geographic photographer snapped
 stunning photos of the cougar walking
 in front of the Hollywood Sign
untain lion as P-22 was found sickened 
with mange and rat poison in March,
 but new photos released today show
 that he's looking healthy and back to 
his majestic self again.

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area biologist Jeff Sikich set up a camera that could be remotely triggered on Nov. 21 in Griffith Park near a deer P-22 had killed. Sikich took these snapshots of the mountain lion coming back and forth to the deer over a period of four days to feed on it. P-22's been mostly eating mule deer—the natural prey of choice in the area—but occasionally eats coyotes and raccoons.

National Park Service researchers have been studying P-22 ever since they caught him and put a GPS collar on him in March 2012. Earlier this year, they discovered he was suffering from mange—a parasitic disease of the hair and skin—and after doing some tests, found he had traces of rat poison in his body. They treated him with selamectin, a topical treatment, and it looks like it worked!

“He looks healthy and has a full belly,” Sikich said in a statement. “Based on the number of photos, the multiple angles and the clarity, this is the best indication we’ve had that P-22 appears to have recovered. With these high resolution photos I can zoom in and investigate for signs of mange around the back of his ears and top of his head, which is usually where it first develops.”

However, unless they re-capture P-22 and test his blood, they can't be completely certain to know how healthy he is.

Back in June, there were some videos showing P-22 on the road to recovery. However, Kate Kuykendall of the National Park Service told NBC Los Angeles then that "there’s nothing to say he can’t get mange or that he can’t be exposed to rat poisons again because nothing in his environment has changed."

Local wildlife experts have warned people that putting out bait traps with poison designed to kill rodents outside of their homes and businesses have consequences, like having the poison move up the food chain and affecting larger animals like mountain lions.