P-22 Mountain Lion Monument

Monument to P-22

Monument to P-22 Mountain Lion

Sculpture Render
Concept for Bronze Sculpture

P-22 — Puma Number 22 — The world's most famous mountain lion was euthanized in December.

My hope is that public and private monuments to P-22 will become reminders and catalysts to drive actions that help us successfully coexist and stop driving these amazing beings to extinction.

It's a tragic ending for an animal who made his name by traversing two major freeways — a dangerous and unprecedented feat — to take up a lonely residence in Griffith Park. Over his 12 years, P-22 came to symbolize the challenges facing urban wildlife as well as one particularly groundbreaking effort to protect it. — Rachel Treisman, NPR

Like many, I was inspired by P-22's incredible, resilient life and heartbroken by his passing. I have sculpted several Hollywood icons, but certainly none more important than P-22. The digital sculpting is almost finished.

The next step will be to create a physical enlargement (see here for the processes), the full scale clay sculpt then off to the foundry for the bronze work.

Learn more about P-22 here:
SaveLACougars.org https://savelacougars.org/a-eulogy-for-p-22-a-mountain-lion-who-changed-the-world/

New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/us/mountain-lion-p22-euthanized.html

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Project: https://101wildlifecrossing.org

The Mountain Lion Foundation: https://mountainlion.org

P-22's Digital sculpt is almost complete.

A remote camera captures P-22 passing a nighttime Hollywood sign in Griffith Park.
(Steve Winter / National Geographic)

In 2006, Richard sculpting the mountain lions for Lake Poway, California. With Reno and Sedona at The Living Desert in Palm Springs.

RICHARD BECKER

Monument to P-22