A kill permit has been issued for P-45, one of the last remaining male mountain lions prowling the mountains around L.A. The Department of Fish and Wildlife issued the permit this week to the owner of a ranch where the cat stands accused of helping himself to a Thanksgiving feast of 11 alpacas and a goat.
According to L.A. Observed, the permit gives the rancher the right to kill P-45 if he is caught within 10 days. For the hunt, a professional big cat hunter is being brought in. The hunter can track the animal across a designated radius surrounding the Mulholland Highway-adjacent ranch, but no farther. If P-45 manages to allude the hunter past the 10 days or stays out of the hunting perimeter, the permit will expire.
You might call it a game of cat and… well, also a second, literal cat.
Last year, the state of California issued 265 of these permits to kill mountain lions. Of those 265, there were 107 registered kills. That means it’s close to even odds on if this puma Van Helsing will capture his target, but they do tip a bit in the lion’s favor.
P-45 is kind of a big deal in local mountain lion circles. He was first identified a year ago as a fully-grown adult after popping in on a local winery. It’s not known what he was doing before then, if he moved in from a different area or if he had just cannily avoided Park Service researchers for several years. Since that 2015 capture, he has been tagged with a radio transmitter, which will give the hunter a distinct advantage in finding the animal.
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