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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/wildlife-overpass-los-angeles-lions-p22/>
"Hollywood’s loneliest bachelor just shocked another unsuspecting woman by
leaping over her fence in Beachwood Canyon at the cusp of dawn and then
leisurely checking out her barbecue for leftovers. Leilani Fideler’s security
camera caught him as he gracefully crouched atop her gate, his yellow eyes and
well-defined chest muscles shining in the floodlights before he disappeared
back into the dark.
“Look how gorgeous he is!” raves Beth Pratt, the California Director of the
nonprofit National Wildlife Federation. “I would award him an Olympic score of
ten for the balancing act on the fence. He’s aged so well!”
P-22 is a muscular alpha-male mountain lion. He is such a perfect specimen that
Pratt nicknamed him “the Brad Pitt of the cat world” and tattooed his face on
her left arm. The honey-colored cougar has been living alone for the last ten
years in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, within sight of the Hollywood sign, but
isolated from potential dating partners by the buzzing 405 and 101 freeways.
“He must have made that trek across two major freeways, a feat no other cougar
has accomplished,” says Pratt.
Soon, however, that death-defying stunt will no longer be necessary. For his
upcoming 12th birthday, P-22 will receive an eye-popping gift: the biggest
wildlife overpass in the world.
In the U.S., over a thousand wildlife crossings help animals navigate the
human-built world, allowing them to bypass hazardous infrastructure like
highways, train tracks and aqueducts. But less than two dozen of these are
overpasses, and most are in fairly rural areas. L.A.’s will be a groundbreaking
test case: a wildlife crossing designed to help big cats thrive in an urban
environment."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
