A Ruthless Mountain Lion Broke Into The Los Angeles Zoo And Killed Killarney The Koala

P-22 is a six-year-old mountain lion who resides in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park. He’s a bit of a local celebrity and is allowed pretty much free reign in the park. Because who’s gonna stop him? He’s a fucking mountain lion.

But this week, P-22 may have gone too far. He killed Killarney the Koala, a 14-year-old at the Los Angeles Zoo. Although there’s no direct proof of the kill, cameras around the zoo (which is in Griffith Park) show P-22 on the zoo grounds, and dead koala parts were scattered all about the place the next morning

From The Los Angeles Times. Be forewarned, though, it reads like a something out of the O.J. Simpson case.

On March 3, one of the Los Angeles Zoo’s koalas went missing. Down the road from its enclosure, a tuft of its hair was found. About 400 yards farther down, zookeepers made a grisly discovery: Bloody marsupial parts.

Something must have been able to carry it that far, park employees figured. So they examined the park’s “trap cameras” — surveillance devices with motion sensors — in an effort to spot the culprit. Though the attack wasn’t recorded, they did find still photos of the likely perpetrator: P-22, Griffith Park’s most famous mountain lion.

Just like the scene on Bundy Drive! But nothing to directly connect P-22.

“The evidence is circumstantial. We don’t have any video of it taking the koala. We can’t say 100%,” L.A. Zoo director John Lewis told The Times on Thursday.

If P-22 did it (he should write a book of the same title), it would have been an impressive kill. Officials are astounded P-22 pulled off such a feat.

There was no blood trail in the enclosure, and no fur to indicate a violent attack, he said. The koalas were kept in an open enclosure surrounded by an 8-foot high wall.

“He had to jump down into the enclsoure and jump back out with the koala,” Lewis said of the killer. “It’s a pretty good feat in itself … It was a pretty quick snatch.”

Now, he’s got the whole park on lockdown.

Unfortunately, these types of incidents happen when we have a zoo in such close proximity to one of the largest urban parks in the country,” Barbara Romero, deputy mayor for City Services, said in a prepared statement.

“We are investigating the circumstances of the koala’s disappearance, but in the meantime, we are taking action to ensure that all of our animals are safe. The koalas have been removed from their public habitats for now, and other animals are being moved to their night quarters when the zoo closes,” she said.

Mountain lion got the zoo running SCARED. For now, officials are going to add more cameras to see if they can find out how P-22 got into the park, so they can prevent further attacks.

Good luck. Mountain lion don’t play.

[Via The Los Angeles Times]