Last summer, Wild Friends, the wildlife rehabilitation department at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, received a rather precious delivery: a baby bobcat, weighing in at about four pounds.
A canyoneering guide had found the kitten stranded and abandoned at the bottom of a narrow canyon. Using a rope to pull her out of the canyon, he then tucked her into his backpack, hiked out of the back country, and promptly put her under the care of Best Friends’ licensed wildlife rehabilitator Carmen Smith and sub-permittee Barbara Weider. (Click here for the full story of the bobcat’s rescue.)
The bobcat became the first (and so far only) occupant of a brand-new wildcat enclosure. Well removed from the sanctuary’s other animal care areas, the large enclosure is outfitted with two remote cameras, which allow Carmen and Barbara to keep an eye on the bobcat from their office, located more than a mile away from the enclosure.
With the click of a mouse, they can turn the cameras and see a live image of the bobcat, or look at the video recordings and see what the bobcat has been up to since they last checked. This bit of technology is proving to be a great boon in the care of the bobcat, as it certainly will be for the care of other large cats in the future.
One of the bigger challenges of caring for a wild mammal is keeping that animal wild, and that means minimizing the exposure the animal has to people. Otherwise, the animal in captivity could get used to humans. This is generally not a safe proposition for any animal released back into the wild. The less habituated the animal is to people, the better chance she has to survive on her own. And the cameras are helping to achieve this, enabling Carmen and Barbara to keep their distance from the bobcat, but still make sure she’s doing fine.
Carmen and Barbara have been watching the bobcat intently for months now, and enjoying every minute of it. The bobcat has tripled in size since arriving last summer, and she’s jumping, running and hiding – all good signs. “She’s been displaying all the playful behaviors that are good precursors to catching food,” Carmen says.
The bobcat is scheduled to be released this spring, and Carmen is confident she’ll be ready.
Written by Ted Brewer
Photo by Molly Wald
Video of the wildest cat at Best Friends:
http://www.bestfriends.org/video/bobcat/bf_vid.html