Cougar caught cat-napping

The mountain lion P-22 is a well-known resident of the Griffith Park area of Los Angeles. Photo / AP

A famous local mountain lion who crawled under a Los Angeles home on Tuesday stayed put, despite humans' best efforts to get him out. It wasn't until a full day later, after everybody left him alone, that the animal known as P-22 departed.

The celebrity Griffith Park mountain lion known as P-22. Photo / AP

"The cougar has left the building," the California Department of Fish and Wildlife tweeted. P-22 lives in Griffith Park, where he struts around with the Hollywood sign in the backdrop. On Tuesday, workers discovered the cat hiding in the crawl space while installing a security system on a home in the Los Feliz neighbourhood.

Telemetry wand has picked up #p22 signal in Griffith Park. He's back where he should be, safe and sound.

— California Department of Fish and Wildlife (@CaliforniaDFW) April 14, 2015

Workers tried shooing P-22 away with tennis balls and non-lethal bean bag rounds, CDFW spokeswoman Janice Mackey told the Washington Post. "It didn't really faze him. He's a big tough cat," Mackey said.

Workers tried but failed to get the big cat out from under the house.

"He's a lion, and he's on the top of the food chain over here."

They eventually called off the effort and the cat left on his own terms.