Growing up in Los Angeles as a Latino child interested in science, Miguel Ordeñana didn’t really have any role models to look up to. Now, as a wildlife biologist, his research on P-22, the famous mountain lion of Griffith Park, is important and inspiring. Ordeñana is an advocate for landscape connectivity and a more inclusive community science and, through P-22’s story, is educating people on how wildlife can exist and even thrive in one of the country’s densest urban landscapes.
AFTER THE FOOTAGE CAME TO LIGHT, Ordeñana, Park Service researchers and Beth Pratt, the National Wildlife Federation’s California regional executive director, watched P-22’s image on a loop, trying to decipher what his long trek and urban relocation meant for his species. To Ordeñana and Pratt, it signified two things: Large predators were living in urban areas, and humans had a responsibility to live and let live. This gave new life to an old dream: building a wildlife crossing in dense LA County, over 10 lanes of crowded pavement and into the Santa Monica Mountains.
