Wild cats – Page 11 – Pain In The Bud

Things Are Looking Up For This Shy Orphaned Puma As He Settles Into A New Home

Nicholas was orphaned and severely injured as a cub as he and his mother tried to cross a busy highway. He’s settling into his new home, where he will have his own habitat, den and even his own pond.

Nicholas the mountain lion has a beautiful home waiting for him with his own pond, a rock den, a grassy area where he can run around and several other little hideaways where he can enjoy some privacy and naps.

But first the three-year-old puma will have to clear quarantine and become more comfortable with his new surroundings and new caretakers.

“He’s doing really well but he’s still very scared, he’s a very timid cat, so we’re just taking it really slow, day by day and the keepers are taking some quiet time with him,” said Bobbi Brink, the founder of San Diego County-based Lions, Tigers and Bears, Nicholas’ new home.

Nicholas the Mountain Lion — Nicholas stretches his legs in quarantine as he awaits the move to his own habitat. Credit: Lions, Tigers and Bears

The golden-coated feline with an expressive face has had a tough journey to the 93-acre sanctuary that will be his permanent home.

In 2020 when he was just a cub, Nicholas was following his mother across a busy highway when both were struck by a car. Nicholas was badly injured and his mom was killed in the collision, an unfortunately common fate for members of their species as their longtime habitats are increasingly fragmented by new developments and highways.

Because they require about two years with their mothers to learn how to survive on their own, it’s almost impossible to release orphaned pumas back into the wild. Unlike, say, the orphaned orangutans of Borneo and Sumatra, who can usually be taught to successfully fend for themselves because humans can show them how to physically manipulate their surroundings, there’s no way to teach orphaned pumas how to select prey, stalk, pounce and deliver kill bites.

A sanctuary in northern California provided a home for Nicholas for about three years, but recently went bankrupt, so the staff at Lions, Tigers and Bears secured him, prepared a habitat for him and took on the Herculean task of transporting him to San Diego County.

Nicholas’ case is even more complicated because he has lasting neurological damage from the car crash that killed his mother, including a pronounced head tilt that worsens when he’s scared.

Brink told PITB it’s normal for cats like mountain lions to be spooked by the commotion and uncertainty of a move, as well as leaving everything they know behind. Nicholas is simply obeying his wild instincts, which urge him to be guarded. But he’s got a loving team of caretakers who will work with him, as well as veterinary specialists who are well versed in caring for animals with neurological damage.

“Sometimes it can take (animals like Nicholas) a month, sometimes it can take three months to build up that trust,” Brink said. “His biggest need is he’s very afraid, so we’re gonna have to work around his fear so we don’t scare him more.”

While Nicholas will have his own habitat and can keep to himself as much as he likes, recent observations of his secretive species have shown that pumas have “secret social lives,” and Nicholas will have the opportunity to meet and interact with other mountain lions if he’s comfortable with it.

Pumas — which are known by the scientific name puma concolor and are also called mountain lions, cougars, panthers, catamounts, screamers, painters, gato monte and many other names — are among the most adaptable felids in the world and range from the southernmost edge of South America to just over the Canadian border. They’re able to thrive in mountains, tropical regions, deserts, forests, human-adjacent rural areas and even in urban population centers, as the famed “Hollywood Mountain Lion” P-22 did for more than a decade in Los Angeles.

Their ability to adapt has served them well in a changing world, but they’re not immune to the pressures of human expansion.

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In California their habitats have been carved up by the state’s busy and deadly highways, leaving the cats in genetically isolated pockets. Pumas who strike out in search of their own ranges are extremely vulnerable to vehicle traffic. P-22 famously crossed several of the world’s busiest highways to reach his eventual home in LA’s Griffith Park, but others like Nicholas and his mom aren’t so lucky.

Solutions like the $90 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, currently under construction in Los Angeles County, can connect fragmented ranges and give pumas, coyotes, foxes, deer, rabbits and other animals safe passage. But experts point out that they are just one component in a long-term solution that must include more careful zoning, fences to funnel animals toward safe crossings, and options like tunnels that run under highways, since not all animals will use overpasses.

As planners and wildlife experts figure out new ways to ensure the survival of wildlife in an increasingly crowded, human-dominated world, sanctuaries like Lions, Tigers and Bears play a crucial role by caring for the innocent animals who are injured, displaced and rescued from bad circumstances.

To learn more about Lions, Tigers and Bears or support their ongoing efforts to provide safe, stimulating and comfortable homes for wild animals, visit the non-profit’s site. To receive updates on Nicholas and the other animals at the sanctuary, follow Lions, Tigers and Bears on Instagram and Facebook. Readers who live in the California area can book guided educational tours or visit during one of the sanctuary’s special events. Thanks to Bobbi Brink and Olivia Stafford for allowing PITB to tell Nicholas’ story. All images and videos of Nicholas courtesy of Lions, Tigers and Bears.

Cops Captured A Cocaine-Fueled Serval That Escaped From Its Owner’s Car

The spooked serval bolted through an open window and scurried up a tree during a traffic stop in Cincinnati.

We wish we could say this story is a viral marketing stunt for the recently-released movie Cocaine Bear, but authorities say they’re not joking.

Cincinnati police pulled a car over in what they thought would be a routine traffic stop in late January. But when officers approached the vehicle a large cat inside got spooked, jumped through an open window and took refuge in a tree.

Cops called the city’s animal control staff, initially reporting a “leopard” on the loose.

“[They weren’t] sure what they were dealing with,” Cincinnati Animal Care’s Ray Anderson told WXIX. “Hindsight being 20/20, it probably would have involved a whole lot more people.”

Animal control officers who arrived on scene thought they were dealing with an F1 Savannah, a hybrid between a domestic cat and a serval, and were able to get the cat down from the tree, but not without some difficulty. The exotic wildcat suffered a broken leg in the process. (See video of the cat in the tree here.)

Serval in a tree — The serval took refuge in a tree. Credit: Cincinnati Animal Care

They brought the injured cat to the Cincinnati Zoo, where they were in store for several surprises: The felid was a serval, a medium-size African wildcat, and blood tests showed it had cocaine in its system. A subsequent DNA test confirmed the cat is a serval and not a Savannah hybrid.

The responding animal control officers were “pretty lucky because this cat could’ve shredded us” Chief Troy Taylor of the Hamilton County Dog Warden’s Office told Cincinnati’s WKRC.

The serval, whose name is Amorie, remains in the zoo’s care for now. Taylor said Amorie was given pain meds during treatment and is recovering. It’s not clear what will happen to him, and lots of questions about the incident remain unanswered. Local media reports say the driver was arrested during the traffic stop, but also said the driver is cooperating and has not been charged in relation to the cat or the narcotics.

It’s illegal to own wild cats in Ohio, and unless the serval found himself a bag of cocaine in the fleeting seconds between bolting from the car and scurrying up a tree, it seems the driver has some ‘splainin’ to do.

Disabled Young Mountain Lion Gets A New Home

Nicholas requires regular veterinary care after his mother was killed and he almost lost his life when a driver struck them on a California highway.

Nicholas was just a cub and was following his mother across a busy toll road in Orange County, Calif., in 2020 when a driver hit them, killing his mother and leaving him with life-long disabilities.

Along with the trauma of watching his mother die, the little puma endured months of surgeries to repair his body. Since then, young Nicholas had been living in a sanctuary in northern California, but was about to find himself homeless when the sanctuary’s operators went bankrupt.

With just hours to go before that facility was closed, a sanctuary called Lions, Tigers & Bears of San Diego County swooped in and agreed to take the special-needs puma, who requires regular veterinary care.

“Nicholas has a head tilt and neurological issues, both conditions require ongoing veterinary care,” Lions Tigers & Bears founder Bobbi Brink told KTLA. “We’ve had a few animals with these issues, so our veterinary team is well-versed in providing the specialized care required for Nicholas, and we’re relieved to give him a permanent home with a den, a healthy diet, medical care and enrichment and toys.”

The handsome young puma is currently in quarantine, Brink said, and will be moved into his permanent habitat after 30 days.

Although California is part of their native range and home to a relatively stable population of mountain lions, the species is seriously threatened by habitat destruction, habitat fracturing and vehicle traffic. Some 70 pumas are killed each year on California’s highways, and experts say the survivors are stranded on isolated “islands” of habitat, separated from potential mates by deadly highways. Indeed, scientists who track native wildlife in California have noted signs of inbreeding among pumas, as the animals are cut off from other populations of their species.

nicholasmountainlion — Nicholas in quarantine. Credit: Lions Tigers & Bears sanctuary

The life of the much-celebrated, recently deceased mountain lion P-22 illustrates the problems faced by the unique cats.

P-22 became famous when he migrated from southern California to Los Angeles, crossing the state’s busiest and most dangerous highways to get there. He settled in LA’s Griffith Park, which straddles the hills with the famous Hollywood sign and the outdoor Greek Theatre.

Although he became a local icon, frequently making cameos on the doorbell camera systems of people living nearby and making his rounds through the park and surrounding neighborhoods, P-22’s range was only nine square miles — the smallest range ever recorded for an adult male mountain lion — and he did not have opportunities to mate and produce cubs, as his kingdom was cut off from areas where he might encounter female pumas.

One solution to the problem is to build land bridges connecting areas where mountain lions and other wildlife make their homes. In April of 2022, officials broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which when complete will connect Agoura Hills to the nearby Santa Monica Mountains.

But such projects are wildly expensive and take years to complete. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing has a $90 million price tag and won’t be finished until 2025. On the bright side, about two thirds of the cost has been covered by private donations, proving Californians and other wildlife lovers are invested in the survival of mountain lions, coyotes, deer and other fauna expected to make use of the bridge.

It’s also an encouraging sign indicating efforts to educate the public about local wildlife have been successful. Along with the other problems they face, pumas — also known as catamounts, cougars and dozens of other names — are often confused with African lions.

nicholasmountainlion1 — Nicholas enjoys a nap. Credit: Lions Tigers & Bears sanctuary

Because they’re large cats, they’re called lions and they resemble their African counterparts, many people assume mountain lions are dangerous. But not only are mountain lions (puma concolor) an entirely different species than African lions (panthera leo), they are not in the same category of felid.

Pumas are actually felines, meaning they’re more closely related to domestic cats, and like smaller cats they can purr but cannot roar. True big cats, like tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards, are members of the genus panthera and are capable of roaring, but not purring or meowing.

Perhaps most importantly, pumas are not aggressive toward humans. There are only 27 recorded deaths from encounters with mountain lions over the past century compared to more than 50,000 deaths from dogs, for example, and in almost every one of those cases the pumas were either cornered or their cubs were threatened.

Nicholas is not only a reminder that animal life is valuable, his circumstances also remind us that we’re going to have to find creative ways to ensure the survival of many species as humanity expands. The global population is expected to level off at about 11 billion and then slowly contract as third-world countries undergo the same lifestyle changes common to nations that have already made the transition to first world. But until then, it will take a massive and coordinated effort to ensure we don’t end up on a very lonely planet and likely endanger our own survival with the cascade failures that arise from extirpating entire species.

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Study: Jaguars Aren’t As Solitary As We Thought

Using a network of trail cameras, researchers studied jaguars for years and observed behavior that surprised them.

Lions are famously described as the only social big cats, known for living in extended family units called prides and even forming coalitions, which young males sometimes do before they lead their own prides.

But now, thanks to a research team that monitored trail cameras in the Amazon for years, we know that jaguars form their own coalitions, doing things never before seen like patrolling and marking territory together, cooperating on kills and sharing prey. The researchers focused on areas in Brazil’s Pantanal and Venezuela’s Llanos region, both of which provide varied landscapes and water access for the famously water-friendly big cats, who are strong swimmers and prey on aquatic and land animals.

The team pored through more than 7,000 instances of jaguars appearing on the trail cameras, which gave them a look at a range of jaguar behaviors that normally would not be seen.

“It shows the value of having long-term camera tracking, movement ecology data and direct observations through citizen science,” said Allison Devlin, a co-author of the study. “And from that we’re able to see that if you have a relatively stable jaguar population, healthy prey base, and protection for the species, we can start seeing these more natural behaviors, and start understanding some of the interactions that a solitary species might have.”

Jaguar_(Panthera_onca_palustris)_male_Rio_Negro_2 — Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In two cases, coalitions between jaguars lasted for more than seven years, the researchers said. The jaguars were seen cooperating for almost every activity as they went about their daily lives in the jungle.

Not only are the findings remarkable, but they’re a reminder that we’re still woefully ignorant about the only big cat of the Americas, especially compared to lions, tigers and leopards.

“The secret life of jaguars is more complex than previously thought,” Devlin said. “We still have so much to learn about the intricate lives of these secretive wild cats, with findings that can help scientists better conserve these species and the landscapes on which so many plant, animal, and human communities depend for their survival.”

One reason they’re less studied than other big cats is because jaguars are notoriously elusive. People who have spent their lives in and on the periphery of the Amazon say jaguar eyes are on humans from the moment they enter the jungle, watching from the shadows. Yet there are no recorded cases of man-eating jaguars, and conflicts with the feline apex predators and humans are rare, most often relegated to instances where people got too close to jaguar cubs or tried to corner the animals. Jaguars do a lot of watching, but they don’t allow themselves to be seen.

Of course that doesn’t mean they’re cuddly. Jaguars are the third-largest cats in the world, after tigers and lions. They have the strongest bite force of any cat, which allows them to crunch through giant turtle shells and kill in one bite by literally crushing the skulls of their prey with their teeth. (The name jaguar comes from the indigenous yaguar, which means “he who kills with one leap.” No other cat kills the same way.)

Jaguars are also perpetually confused with leopards, their look-alike African cousins, which leads to further uncertainty about their behavior and habits. Aside from being separated by an ocean and living on separate continents, jaguars are heavier and have thicker limbs than leopards, and the biggest give-away is the presence of spots within their rosettes, which leopards do not have.

Jaguar_(Panthera_onca_palustris)_female_Piquiri_River — Credit: Wikimedia Commons

P-22, ‘A Celebration of Life’ To Live Stream On Feb. 4

Thousands are set to gather at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park to celebrate the extraordinary life of perhaps the most famous mountain lion in history.

You don’t often hear about public memorials for cats, let alone thousands of people participating in them, but the fact that tickets were gone for P-22’s “Celebration of Life” within three hours speaks to the special place the mountain lion had in the hearts of Californians.

The famous puma, who was euthanized in December after he was suffering from an infection and was hit by a car, called Los Angeles’ Griffith Park home, and that’s where the celebration will be held at noon Pacific (3 pm Eastern) on Feb. 4. It’ll be held at The Greek, the outdoor amphitheater more commonly associated with rock stars, although one could argue P-22 was a rock star in his own right.

P-22 was the subject of books, movies and music festivals during his 12-year life, and his face adorned t-shirts, murals and street signs asking people to be careful while driving around the Griffith Park area, where the big guy ranged. He was the most famous mountain lion in an ongoing study of his species, and was easily identified by the radio collar around his neck.

P-22’s “origin story” was equally fascinating. Born in southern California in 2010 or 2011, the fearless puma migrated north, crossing several of the busiest and most dangerous highways in the world before he settled in Los Angeles. His nine-mile home range was the smallest ever recorded for a member of his species.

Bookmark this link or this alternate to livestream the event, which is set to include music, performances and remembrances from Los Angelinos and celebrities who loved the “Hollywood Lion.”

Separately, there’s an effort to honor the late puma with postage stamps featuring his famously derpy visage.

Top image credit Miguel Ordeñana/Natural History Museum. Bottom image credit Steve Winter.