NEWBURY PARK, Calif. — We all know P-22 isn’t afraid of the limelight.

The mountain lion was spotted strutting around in the Hollywood Hills and this week caused a stir when it was seen at Silver Lake – the most southerly its collar has ever been recorded.

Seth Riley, head of the National Park Service’s wildlife branch, oversees the big cat study that has been underway for 20 years. Cats with and without collars are filmed, but he says all of these fabulous feline images may not be giving us a clear picture.

“People perceive that animals are there, including mountain lions, more than before, but that doesn’t mean that’s actually the case,” Riley said. “It does not mean that animals behave differently. It just means that people have these cameras everywhere and picking them up.

Riley and her colleagues recently analyzed the first 15 years of study data. This involved tracking 29 different collared animals and 130,000 separate GPS locations. And what they found out is that the cougars don’t want to hang around with us.

“The vast, vast majority of the time, like 99% of their locations on average, are in natural areas,” Riley explained. “About 1% of…GPS locations were in a developed area. »

The findings were featured in Wildlife Management magazine, with P-22 – the Brad Pitt of cougars – on the cover. This is the first time the National Park Service has published a major description of what mountain lions do there. And as Riley explained, they really prefer to keep their distance, staying on average about a mile away from residential spaces.

Adult females were found to be even less likely to come to town. In fact, based on data from half of the cougars tracked, the most likely to venture into urban areas were the P-22 and P-41 in the Verdugo Mountains – but even with them it was even less than 10% of the time.

So when they visit us, the question is, why? Riley isn’t sure but has a guess. Cougars nibble on deer, and deer need fresh vegetation and water. During dry periods, they are more likely to find that in developed neighborhoods, and where prey goes, predators follow.

“So deer could hang around near residential areas,” Riley said. “And that could be a reason why cougars are closer to development than we think.”

The data also gave another insight: When the cougars get close, it’s usually at night – likely to avoid people – “which is good for everyone, for the cougars and for the people,” he said. Riley.

Riley also pointed out that these animals can roam a wide area and move quickly, so just because someone is walking down your street, he said, “it doesn’t mean the mountain lion lives in your house, n ‘is this not ? They could literally be miles away in hours and often are.

Only two megacities on the entire planet have big cats: Mumbai, India has leopards, and there are cougars in Los Angeles — and that’s it.

It’s such a unique and special situation, which is why Riley is dedicated to investigating it. The purpose of the data is to understand what is happening with the population so that he can better protect them. His work has been instrumental in the development of the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Bridge, which is slated to open in the coming months.

“I feel like every day you go out and you don’t know what new thing you might learn,” he said. “I mean, that’s the great thing about science, right?”