Tribal leaders, scientists and conservation advocates have buried Southern California’s most famous mountain lion in the mountains where the big cat once roamed.
LOS ANGELES —
Some representatives of the Chumash, Tataviam and Gabrielino peoples argued that samples taken during the necropsy should be buried with the rest of his body in the ancestral lands where he spent his life. Some tribal elders said keeping the specimens for scientific testing would be disrespectful to their traditions. Mountain lions are regarded as relatives and considered teachers in LA's tribal communities.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, where the cougar's remains had been kept in a freezer before the burial, called the burial a “historically significant ceremony.” Beth Pratt, the California executive director for the National Wildlife Federation who also attended the ceremony, wrote on Facebook that the burial “ helped me achieve some measure of peace” as she grieves the animal's death.
Wildlife officials believe P-22 was born about 12 years ago in the western Santa Monica Mountains, but left because of his father's aggression and his own struggle to find a mate amid a dwindling population. That drove the cougar to cross two heavily traveled freeways and migrate east to Griffith Park, where a wildlife biologist captured him on a trail camera in 2012.
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