>> paula archinaco: no. not at all. there's signs for rattlesnakes; there's not signs for mountain lions. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: some view you have here. paula and jason archinaco's house is something of a local landmark-- not just for the killer view of los angeles, but also for an encounter a workman had one day in the crawl space under the house. he was doing some wiring when he saw something scary. >> jason archinaco: he comes into my office terrified. and he says, "bro, you have a mountain lion in your house, bro." and so i said to him, "a mountain lion?" and he goes, "yeah, man, a mountain lion, face to face, eye to eye. it came eye to eye with me." and he was, like, terrified. >> whitaker: he had been eye to eye with p-22, so named by the park service-- "p" for "puma"; studied, photographed here with a small camera on a very long stick. p-22 wears a park service tracking collar that sends gps signals on his location, signals that were blocked this day because he was under the house. >> paula archinaco: he was jus

>> paula archinaco: no. no, not at all. not at all. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: some view you have here. paula and jason archinaco'sa local landmark-- not just for the killer view of los angeles, but had one day in the crawl space under the house. he was doing some wiring when he saw something scary.co: he comes into my office terrified. and he says, "bro, you have a mountain lion in your house, bro.""a mountain lion?" and he goes, "yeah, man, a mountain lion, face to face, eye to eye. it came eye to eye with me."ified. >> whitaker: he had been eye to eye with p-22, so named by the "puma"; number 22 out of 44 they've studied, photographed here withry long stick. p-22 wears a park service tracking collar that sends gpsn, signals that were blocked this day because he was under the house. >> paula archinaco: he was justo snooze, completely just like we woke him >> whitaker: soon, the house was packed with cameras and reporters. already a local celebrity because of this "national geographic" picture, taken by a remote camera a mile

>> paula archinaco: we don't know how. >> whitaker: they call them "ghost cats". >> paula archinaco: there you go. >> whitaker: and though they live in the shadows, in much of southern california, they're never far away. a trail camera caught this one a stone's throw from the rooftops >> jeff sikich: these animals do their best to, you know, stay elusive and away from us. even us researchers, who follow them almost daily, we hardly ever see them. >> whitaker: jeff sikich is a park service biologist, an expert on big cats who holds something of a record-- he's seen and captured p-22 four times now. this time, he corners the animal and hits him with a tranquilizer dart. quickly, it knocks p-22 out, with his eyes still open. the batteries on his gps collar were running low. replacing them gives sikich and his crew a chance for a checkup. p-22 is healthy, weighing in at 125 pounds. from experience, sikich knows that when the animal comes to, it's no threat-- the instinct to sure enough, a groggy p-22 wakes up and stumbles back into the shadows. >> sikich: here's the past eight months of

>> paula archinaco: we don't know how. >> whitaker: they call them >> paula archinaco: ththe you go. >> whitaker: and though they

>> paula archinaco: we don't know how. >> whitaker: they call them "ghost cats". >> paula archinaco: there you go. >> whitaker: and though they live in the shadows, in much of southern california, they're never far away.

. >> paula archinaco: he was just laying there, trying to snooze, completely just like we woke him >> whitaker: soon, the house was packed with cameras and reporters. p-22 was already a local celebrity because of this "national geographic" picture, taken by a remote camera a mile or two from the archinacos'