LOS ANGELES — A mountain lion that killed a Chihuahua while the little dog was being walked on a leash in the Hollywood Hills earlier this month is the famed cougar P-22, the National Park Service confirmed Monday.
P-22 wears a tracking collar as part of a park service study and is known by Southern Californians for traveling across two freeways and making a huge Los Angeles park its home. The big cat is regularly recorded on security cameras strolling through residential neighborhoods near Griffith Park.
P-22 killed the Chihuahua as it was walking on a leash with a dog walker on the evening of Nov. 9, the park service said in a statement Monday.
"Based on video footage and GPS tracking collar data, we know P-22 was the animal responsible for the attack," the statement said.
Grainy security video of the attack, first reported by KTLA-TV, showed the dog walker with two dogs being followed by a mountain lion in the narrow streets of the Hollywood Hills. According to the news station, the cougar stalked the group before it attacked Piper, a Chihuahua mix.
The Park Service said this is the first time it's aware of a mountain lion attacking a pet on a leash in the Los Angeles area. Still, other incidents have been reported in Colorado and other parts of Southern California.
Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare. Around 20 confirmed attacks on humans have occurred in California in 110 years of record-keeping, according to wildlife officials.
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