Live your best Wild Life.  

Join this L.A. Lion that ‘posed’ for my trail camera and made the cover of a coffee table book co-created by the MarineMammalCare.org, CougarConservancy.org,  SamoFund.org and others.  See the link below and visit the CougarConservancy.org to get your copy and get your name in the book. What follows is the Cougar Conservancy’s post from FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/cougarconservancy/

Coastal California - the Wild Life

 

“We (The Cougar Conservancy) are thrilled to announce the release of Coastal California, The Wild Life—a beautiful hardcover photography book co-created by the Marine Mammal Care Center, Cougar Conservancy, and others. The book is a fundraising initiative to support the critical conflict services and assistance programs we provide to communities throughout California, and we are extremely proud to share it with you.

To top it off —we’re on the cover! Our very own Jason Klassi, a Southern California photographer and emmy-nominated writer, captured this beautiful photo of a cougar at sunrise with the Los Angeles skyline and Pacific Ocean in the distance. But the incredible pictures don’t stop there. Throughout this book you will find some of our favorite shots of California cougars captured by our Advisory Committee member, Johanna Turner, and more from Klassi.

Your donation will help raise much needed funds for our critical wildlife coexistence work. To get your book today”, visit: pvpublications.com/cougar-conservancy

 

Cougar Conservancy

Public Enemy No. 1

Anna Thea Bogdanovich

Songwriter, producer, performer

Jason Klassi

Acoustic Guitar

Public Enemy No. 1


Public Enemy No 1 is a musical tribute to a world enduring a pandemic. This Covid-inspired song and music video by Anna Thea Bogdanovich with Jason Klassi is dedicated to the doctors, nurses, scientists and everyone doing their part.  A portion of the proceeds from any sales of this song will go to organizations supporting Covid-19 Frontline Workers.

 

 

 

 

Above the megalopolis, beautiful animals roam.

Where wilderness meets city lights, we’re all creatures in our cosmic home. 

What’s so “civil” about civilization anyway,

When clever critters have lived for generations high above the fray?

  

 

I’m the Lion in Your Life

Ode to the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing

©Jason Klassi

I walk the night on mountain ridge high above the sea.
I sense your smells, sounds and souls from below in sparkling cities.
When the sun comes up and alarms do ring, you begin your daily spree.
I disappear in the darkest canyon, deep where no one sees.

Now I may live in a hidden world, but do not misconstrue.
Along your trails you won’t see me, but I’m quietly watching you.
I don’t want to scare or hurt, but you control my fate.
Please you tall Two-Legged Ones, open your eyes before it’s too late.

To survive we need to spread our seed from valley to windy ridge.
Every lion has the right to live, love and die
and cross over liberty canyon bridge.

I’m the lion in your life.
I’m your wildness to explore.
I’m each breath you take while making love.
I’m the heartbeat of your soul.

Sometimes you crush my flesh and bones on freeways that surround.
Sometimes you capture and collar me and hunt me down.
Well, I may be the roar-less lion but I will never be tamed.
Please don’t fall prey to your own demise playing your own selfish game.

Pesticides are genocide and trophy skins are the end of my kind.
Let’s find a way to co-exist in harmony for all time.
Now we don’t have to interact but we each need room to roam.
Set aside your fears and let’s share this place that we can both call home.

To survive we need to spread our seed from valley to windy ridge.
Every lion has the right to live, love and die
and cross over liberty canyon bridge.

I’m the lion in your life.
I’m your wildness to explore.
I’m each breath you take while making love.
I’m the heartbeat of your soul.

 

“I’m the Lion in Your Life” is a poem written by Jason Klassi and inspired by the pumas he photographs in the Santa Monica Mountains.  Photograph and poem ©Jasonklassi     

Here is a trail cam ‘homage to P27’, one of the coolest cats in the Santa Monica Mountains.   P27 was the first mountain lion I ever trail-cammed.   When I saw the 3 second, grainy, black and white video standing on the very rocks he crossed, i began flehming like a cougar. 

Click the link below to see the video.

Homage to P27, a collection of trail cam videos

Homage to P27, the Lion King of the Santa Monica Mountains. © Jason Klassi
Homage to P27, the Lion King of the Santa Monica Mountains. © Jason Klassi

 

 

 

Whiskers the mountain lion camera-trapped by Jason Klassi

This young cougar appeared on my trail cam ‘like a comet in the night sky’ on Thanksgiving.  Hopefully “Comet”, a neighbor of #P45, will also survive and thrive in the mountains above Los Angeles. #mountainlionfoundation #savelacougars

Camera trap images by Jason Klassi, © 2016.

puma-crouching-sideview
This stealthy juvenile puma crouches in the darkness high above Santa Monica. © 2016 Jason Klassi
puma-eyes-forward
Comet the cougar puts its best paw forward in front of my DSLR camera. © 2016 Jason Klassi
The charismatic cougar P27 stops by my camera spot.

 

Click on this link to view the video. The charismatic cougar at my new camera spot

 

This charismatic cougar relaxes at my new camera spot.    The animal seems to be healthy, aside from the annoying GPS collar. This cougar apparently has learned to survive with millions of human neighbors in Los Angeles.  (I think it’s P19).  Let’s give it space to roam with the proposed #LibertyCanyon wildlife crossing.